title: A Team Approach to Improving Tissue Management.
abstract: Tissue implant management can be labor intensive because of multiple storage locations and cumbersome tracking systems. The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to enhance patient safety and nursing satisfaction by upgrading our tissue-management facility and processes. We created a centralized storage room for tissue implants and staffed this room during all shifts. Tissue management was executed using tracking software and transportation devices that supported tissue receipt, storage, disposition, documentation, and reporting. Our project resulted in our full compliance with tissue implant requirements from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and The Joint Commission. We also reduced our documentation error rate from 3% to less than 1%, and decreased the tissue-expiration rate by 1.1%. Tissues are now delivered to ORs, which allows RNs to focus on patient care rather than retrieval of implants. Monitoring of the tissue inventory has improved, resulting in the reduction of tissue wastage.
authors.forename: Jacqueline A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Sions
authors.forename: Kimberly A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Cheuvront
authors.forename: Georgiana L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Grove
authors.forename: Myra J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Beach
authors.forename: Jay W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Bowers
authors.forename: Cinthia R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Cendaña
authors.forename: Jesse R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hixson
authors.forename: Mary C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D010348:Patient Care Team; D058996:Quality Improvement; D014481:United States; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration
keywords: allograft; autograft; tissue implants; tissue storage; tissue tracking