Rounding for Excellence

Clinical Focus on Quality: Intermountain launches new rounding initiative

Intermountain has launched a new rounding initiative called Rounding for Excellence. "Rounding" is a healthcare term referring to the process of checking on patients. Today the meaning of the term has been enlarged to encompass other types of visits and feedback checks (including the proverbial "management by walking around" process).

As part of the initiative, which was based on a successful pilot program run at LDS Hospital and Dixie Regional Medical Center, Intermountain's senior leaders will on a consistent basis visit with employees where they work; learn what they do; and ask questions about how things are going, what is working, and what might be improved.

Rounding for Excellence

Key objectives of the Rounding for Excellence initiative are:

• To build a clear communication process at all levels of the organization.
• To actively engage our employees by soliciting ideas and suggestions and identifying process improvements.
• To identify the positive things that are happening in our facilities and honor individuals for the extraordinary work they do.
• To maintain a consistent focus on our culture of patient safety.

"We looked at internal and external best practices from other healthcare organizations, then developed and implemented a rounding standard for Intermountain," said Nancy Nowak, RN, Intermountain vice president of Clinical Operations and chief nursing officer. "Our pilot efforts at Dixie Regional and LDS Hospital have shown amazing results in a short period of time," Nancy said. "This is an exciting opportunity to provide the best care to our patients and communities."

Dixie Regional Medical Center Administrator/CEO Terri Kane agrees. "We've been rounding at Dixie Regional Medical Center for over two years. We volunteered for the pilot project to better hone our skill and focus on this important initiative," Terri says. "We've learned the power of hardwiring this process and the challenges of making it an integral part of our daily work, not a passing fancy. It works for everyone: Nursing, Pharmacy, Lab, IS, medical offices, etc. We're hooked."