Remote Patient Monitoring Improves Patient Falls and Reduces Harm.

Background: Minimizing patient falls and fall-related injuries within organizational constraints is a high priority for nurse leaders. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services do not reimburse hospitals for fall-related expenditures. In-person sitters are used to prevent falls but are resource intensive and costly.

Efficacy of the Crisis Risk Triage Scale in Inpatient Units Within the United States.

Patient violence toward others, including doctors and nurses, is a serious concern worldwide. A wealth of literature supports the assertion that violent behavior can be prevented with proper screening and management policies. This project aimed to evaluate the Crisis Triage Rating Scale (CTRS) within a 12-hospital integrated healthcare delivery system located in the southeastern United States.

Interdisciplinary Rounds on a Hospitalist Service: Impact on Palliative Care Measures, Quality, and Utilization Outcomes.

Background: Despite growth in service availability, palliative care (PC) referrals are often underutilized or delayed, which may compromise patient outcomes.

Local Problem: Underutilized or delayed PC referrals among hospitalized adults prompted this project aimed at improving PC measures, quality, and utilization outcomes.

Methods: Data extracted from the electronic medical record were used to identify needed improvements in PC.

Impact of a Restraint Management Bundle on Restraint Use in an Intensive Care Unit.

Restraint use has been linked to longer lengths of stay and other undesirable outcomes. This evidence-based project explored the impact of a restraint management bundle on restraint use, quality, and safety outcomes. Results indicated that the proportion of intensive care unit patients restrained decreased significantly (24.

Predicting Sepsis Risk Using the "Sniffer" Algorithm in the Electronic Medical Record.

The Sepsis "Sniffer" Algorithm (SSA) has merit as a digital sepsis alert but should be considered an adjunct to versus an alternative for the Nurse Screening Tool (NST), given lower specificity and positive predictive value. The SSA reduced the risk of incorrectly categorizing patients at low risk for sepsis, detected sepsis high risk in half the time, and reduced redundant NST screens by 70% and manual screening hours by 64% to 72%. Preserving nurse hours expended on manual sepsis alerts may translate into time directed toward other patient priorities.