Purposeful Rounding

The WMHS Executive Management team had a time-well-spent experience yesterday.  The team met for lunch with our Patient Experience and Culture Department, and we were briefed on the latest venture at WMHS, Purposeful Rounding.  Wow, what an afternoon! 

The process was reviewed with all of us; we received our pairing teams and our assigned units and off we went.  Nancy Adams, Chief Operating Officer / Chief Nurse Executive, and I were paired together…………..luck of the draw certainly for me.  We visited around a half dozen patients during our rounds and asked them about aspects of their stay. We asked about their care; whether or not we were meeting their expectations; did they find the whiteboard useful in their room; if they were being discharged, had the discharge instructions been reviewed with them and did they understand them; what more could be done to improve their patient experience; have we been responsive to their needs; did they or their family members have any issues or concerns that we could address; what was the level of noise that they have been experiencing especially at night; were they satisfied with the cleanliness of their room and do they have any immediate needs that we could assist them with.  

During our visits, some of the information that patients and families shared is as followed: we heard about our great nurses and some not so great staff; call light responsiveness, both the good and the bad; that we need TVs in every room in the ED; bed cleaning needs to be enhanced, especially in the evenings and at night so patients can get to their rooms faster; we need real decaf coffee on the units, not Sanka; the newly redesigned information booklets that patients are receiving are full of great information; that we have to be careful as to what we say about our patients at any time, but especially within earshot of a them; ED docs were great; some housekeeping issues exist that need to be addressed; ice in the water pitchers would be nice; that we need to do a better job of getting patients discharged once we tell them that they are going home; and that even though discharge instructions have been reviewed and explained that they may not be fully understood.

Nancy and I also had the opportunity to interact with a number of physicians while rounding.  They also exchanged great information and we will be addressing some of their issues as well.

We then returned to meet as a group and shared the information that was gleaned by each team.  We now have a treasure trove of information.  Some of the issues and concerns can be addressed immediately and some may take some time, but none of the information that was gleaned is out of our realm of accomplishment.  

We will be doing Purposeful Rounding on a monthly basis using the same format and expanding it to others in the organization.  This type of rounding will be a supplement to the rounding that occurs on a daily / weekly basis by members of the Executive Management team.  

As stated in the introduction, yesterday afternoon was time very well spent!  Thank you all for an experience that will now be hardwired into our culture at WMHS.