AIM for Zero is an example of HCA’s commitment to providing excellence in healthcare through the consistent application of evidence-based interventions in the elimination of Central Line-Associated Blood Stream Infections (CLA-BSI). HCA’s goal for this initiative is zero, as we know from the medical literature that these infections are increasingly proven to be avoidable.

The letter “A” in AIM stands for antimicrobial stewardship which embraces the effective and efficient utilization of antibiotics. Overuse of broad spectrum antibiotics is not only needlessly expensive, but it breeds resistant infections. The letter “I” refers to a checklist of interventions that has been demonstrated as preventing CLA-BSI at the point of Insertion. “M” stands for vigilance in maintaining and removing central lines at the earliest appropriate moment.

Culture is critical to high performance health care. AIM for Zero includes behavioral expectations that encourage any team member to “speak up” to assure that the required interventions are followed. The personal behavior choices caregivers make each day affect their ability to protect patients from preventable, and potentially life-threatening, infections. Through exemplary leadership and support, HCA is committed to offering the premier performance patients expect and deserve.

This innovative patient monitoring solution has been installed at Medical Center of Trinity, Brandon and Osceola to allow obstetricians to remotely access vital patient information such as fetal heart rate including maternal contraction patterns in virtual real-time directly from the labor & delivery unit to a physician’s smart phone from anywhere a cell phone connection can be received.

As a result of our success with the OB monitoring program, we expanded into the cardiology program which provides physicians immediate access to cardiac monitoring from their smartphone.

Broselow System for Acute Pediatric Administration of Drugs in the ER

All of our hospital emergency departments use the Broselow System to ensure the proper dosing and administration of drugs to children. Pediatric dosing can be difficult, especially in emergency situations, and the Broselow System allows medical professionals to instantly access proper dosing, improve the speed and accuracy in acute preparation and administration of drugs, reduce medical errors and standardizes pediatric dosing so that we can provide our young patients with high quality emergency care, safely.

The West Florida Division has invested heavily in its Electronic Health Record (EHR) initiative for many years. With EHR, access to patient health information is simplified and patient safety and quality improved. Our hospitals have brought numerous clinical components for the EHR on-line through major investments in technology. As of March 2010, physicians are able to document and enter patient orders on-line and remotely from their offices. This streamlines the ordering process and ensures accurate and timely approach to patient care.

As more physician practices use Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems, there is an increased need to integrate data from a variety of clinical systems, including hospital systems. Linking physician practices to our hospital databases is being rolled out through the hCare Hub interface. This allows physician offices real-time access to patient clinical data from the hospital. Effective clinical data exchange can provide necessary information to physicians to make timely decisions and reduce duplicate testing and unnecessary hospitalizations.

HCA led a national effort to reduce medication errors by placing this system in all of our hospitals several years ago. Bar codes on medications are scanned at the patient’s bedside, providing our clinical staff with an effective tool to ensure that the right patient receives the right medication at the right time through the right route.

We expanded bar coding for transfusion products in all of our hospitals as a result of the medication safety successes. Prior to administering any blood product, the unit is scanned to ensure the patient is receiving the right transfusion product at the right time through the right route.

Influenza remains the number one cause of vaccine-preventable death in the United States. Infected health workers can infect others and we want to eliminate that risk. Any death from a disease that is vaccine-preventable is one too many. HCA employees have received national recognition for their commitment to patient safety for their efforts in supporting HCA’s flu immunization policy. This flu season our goal is the same– a commitment to 100 percent patient safety. The way we will achieve this goal is through vaccination of health workers with direct patient contact or wearing a mask when vaccine is not possible.

We were the first US healthcare system to voluntarily perform a simple blood test to screen newborns for elevated levels of bilirubin that triggers jaundice. By identifying newborns at risk for Kernicterus, which causes permanent brain damage and physical impairment, we can treat them immediately and prevent this serious health threat.

A new strain of antibiotic-resistant staph, or MRSA, is spread easily and is much more difficult to treat than ordinary staph bacteria. The growing prevalence of MRSA in our communities and in our hospitals is creating new challenges for the healthcare community.

In response, HCA hospitals across the nation, under the leadership of Dr. Jonathan B. Perlin, HCA’s chief medical officer, have implemented more aggressive infection prevention protocols to tackle this issue. HCA facilities have also been provided with a proactive education campaign for patients, visitors and staff to prevent infections from occurring and spreading.

We see MRSA as a national challenge affecting hospitals and communities alike, and would like to share our materials as a way of contributing to the education and more importantly the eradication of MRSA. Please feel free to use the tools from our MRSA campaign, available on our hospital websites, at home, work, or school, and join us in the fight to eradicate MRSA.

We’re also bringing future physicians to our communities through medical training programs, with Largo Medical Center home to the largest osteopathic teaching program in the southeastern United States. St. Petersburg General Hospital and Northside Hospital also sponsor medical training programs including Traditional Rotating Internship and Family Practice Residency.

HCA West Florida developed and implemented an innovative program called Responsible Imaging to enhance medical imaging safety through state-of-the-art monitoring, use of best practices and extensive education of staff, physicians and patients. The program was developed and piloted at Bayonet Point and Largo with LANDAUER®, a global leader- in radiation science and services. With increasing attention on the long-term cumulative effect of radiation exposure, we are excited to be a leader in responsible medical imaging practices to ensure the lowest dose of exposure for our patients.

The West Florida Division was selected to pilot a new technology called Vitals Now – this enables the automatic capture of patient vitals right from the bedside into our main Clinical System. This enhances clinical decision making for our care givers as patient vitals are now readily available in the patients’ record.