Franciscan Health Michigan City Earns Top Patient Safety Honor

Franciscan-Health-Michigan-City-Earns-Top-Patient-Safety-Honor-2017Franciscan Health Michigan City recently received the Indiana Hospital Association’s 2017 Patient Safety Innovation Award and was a nominee in the Service and Leadership Award category.

The honors went to Brooke Nack, manager of the hospital’s inpatient therapy and mobility programs, and her team.

Nack and associates designed and implemented a six-month, hospital early mobility pilot program meant to mobilize patients and increase their satisfaction and employee engagement. As a result, hospital-acquired pressure ulcers dropped by 70 percent, worker back injuries related to patient care decreased by 40 percent, and nursing turnover dropped 45 percent.

The team is consulting with sister hospitals that are implementing similar programs and all Franciscan hospitals have requested mobility program resources and are exploring implementation.

“It was such an honor to receive the Innovation Award from the Indiana Hospital Association at their Safety Summit. There are many, wonderful quality initiatives being conducted throughout the state. I believe the level of collaboration and engagement from the many disciplines that make up our care team in Michigan City really set our program apart,” Nack said.

She added the hospital has enhanced its patient activity level because nurses, physicians, therapists, case managers and technicians work together daily to show that mobility matters.

”This was possible because the administration invested in the value that is achieved by mobilizing our patients and enabling us to hire our outstanding mobility team members. This year has been one of great joy to me, as we have witnessed the sharing of many mobility initiatives across the Franciscan Health system. I’m very excited that there have been great strides in adopting a culture of mobility at many of our sister hospitals,” Nack said.

Besides Nack, interdisciplinary mobility team members include Bobbi Foster-Herrin, Laura Fuller, Sarah Jones, Cathy Hebbe and physicians Bikash Agarwal and Hosn Maatouk, both MDs.

For more information, send email to Nack at brooke.nack@franciscanalliance.org.