Executive Director Linda T. Prister, RN, MSBA, and her team including Medical Director Ricardo D. Borrego, MD, MSBA, Team Leader of Patient Rooms Kelly Morse, RN, and Team Leader of Operating Room Linda Leslie, RN, highlight three reasons their ASC achieves quality care excellence.
1. Philosophy and culture of compassion. Operations at Dearborn Surgery Center are a team effort. “The reason the DSC received this award for the second year in a row is continuous adherence to the philosophy of service excellence,” says Ms. Prister. “Each of the clinical and support areas takes pride in its role within the center. I believe one of the key attributes to a successful team is knowledge that each member is integral to its success and that everyone’s performance is reflective of each other,” she says.
Ms. Prister cites patient feedback praising this approach. “A resounding patient feedback we receive is that the culture and atmosphere of this center is one in which the friendliness, compassion and focus are palpable,” she says. “The staff and physicians create a calm existence and our patients feel as if they are the only person being cared for at any given time. The center particularly zeros in on changes in patient feedback from month to month.”
2. Leader of practice implementation. The Dearborn management team continuously updates their practices to exceed standards of care. “For example, we redesigned our post-operative patient follow up documentation to include the practice of having an anesthesiologist review and sign off on all patients,” says Ms. Prister. “This was identified as a future recommendation years ago, but we implemented the practice because it was in the best interest of the patient.”
A further demonstration of Dearborn’s leadership in practice implementation is its extensive surgical safety checklist. “We have a surgical safety checklist that is an integrated form that includes all facets of the patient’s visit from registration to discharge,” says Ms. Prister. “The Dearborn Surgery Center implemented this checklist 18 months ago and has total compliance.
“This safety checklist has been presented at national and state conferences,” she says. “We take the role of being a leader in patient care delivery and not just a follower of regulatory compliance.”
3. Prospective and retrospective internal audits. The Dearborn ASC does more than merely comply with regulations. “We not only look for ways to improve on issues that occur, we randomly do prospective and retrospective audits internally to stay ahead of doing what’s expected and going beyond that,” says Ms. Prister. “This brings it full circle back to the staff and surgeons and patients.”
Ms. Prister refers to the saying, “I don’t want to be on the bleeding edge, I want to be on the leading edge,” and that seems to be the driving motivation at Dearborn. “Successful implementation is not done by a single person, but by the beautiful balance of talents between all the people in the facility,” she says. “The staff is willing to give their best because we listen to them and put what they have to say into practice. We feel that maintaining your culture of service begins with staff satisfaction.”
Learn more about CTQ Solutions.
