News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville Regional Medical Center seeing marked improvements to its emergency room procedures after implementing a new system.
Interim Chief Nursing Officer Chevelle Johnson said they have already decreased patient wait times from an average of 75 minutes to under 30 minutes in just 10 days. She said the crux of the new procedure is that instead of the provider will go to the patient rather than the patient waiting until they get a bed to see them.
“So the first person our patients now see is an RN, they get triage of about four minutes, it’s very quick triage,” Johnson said. “As soon as that’s done they got what we call a rapid assessment area. There’s another nurse there, a tech, and a provider will come there and see them. Our goal is to get a provider to them in 20 minutes.”
Johnson said with a decrease in wait times, the facility has also seen a decrease in its percentage of patients who leave without being seen (LWBS). She said prior to January 16th, the percentage of LWBS patients averaged about seven percent. She said in 10 days, that has dropped to 1.6 percent.
Johnson said the hospital has seen an improvement in patient satisfaction. She said at one time the hospital was receiving about 10 to 14 complaints every two weeks about wait times. She said they have not received any since implementing the new procedure.
In addition to patient satisfaction, Johnson said they are seeing positive changes with the staff as well.
“It’s hard to show data for but you can talk to the staff, they’re just happier,” Johnson said. “You can just see they’ve got their spark back, they’re excited they’re not getting all these complaints from patients and it’s actually giving them back more time. They’re not just putting out fires all the time and running. And it’s also building camaraderie between the providers. Because before they were separated into three different areas and not knowing what the other ones were doing and one could be working hard and one working not as hard and now they’re all together and taking care of our patients and it’s created better teamwork.”
In dropping the hospital wait times, Johnson said they are also able to get ambulance patients into the facility more quickly. Johnson said that helps to get ambulances back out into the community in a more timely manner.
