Performance Improvement
Continuous improvment in our hospital and clinics
Performance Improvement (PI) is a planned approach to monitoring, analyzing and improving every process within the hospital. In this way, we continually work on improving patient care and other services provided by the hospital, and increase the likelihood of achieving desired patient outcomes. Every department of the hospital is involved in PI activities.
The PI Department oversees all PI activities, and is made up of the following specialty areas:
- Quality
- Safety: Patient and Environmental
- Risk Management and Compliance
- Infection Control and Prevention
- Education for Staff and Patients
Kathy Goranson, BA, MT(ASCP), MS, OTR/L, has been the Performance Improvement Director since November, 2009. She was born in Iowa City, IA. Kathy attended the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the University of Illinois-Springfield where she received her Bachelors degree in Medical Technology. She worked 22 years as a medical technologist, 12 years of which was as lab manager of a Critical Access Hospital in Illinois. Kathy later attended the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN where she received a Masters degree in Occupational Therapy. She was employed for 5 years as an occupational therapist, working first in a 96-bed hospital doing inpatient, transitional care, and outpatient therapy, then in a long-term care setting in Illinois.
For additional information, questions, comments or concerns regarding Performance Improvement, please contact Kathy Goranson at 542-8213 or by email.
Quality
Quality in healthcare has been defined as “the degree to which health care services for individuals and communities increase the likelihood of achieving desired patient outcomes”. Our entire hospital is involved in activities to measure the quality of clinical and support services. We have a multi-disciplinary Quality Improvement Council that oversees and initiates teams to improve the quality of our current processes. If you have any questions, comments or quality concerns, please contact Becky Baldwin at (712) 542-8270.
Quality of care is multi-dimensional; it encompasses safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equity. Therefore, there is no single measure you can use to decide which hospital is best. What you can do is judge whether a hospital seems to be doing everything it can to deliver the best care possible to its patients—by adopting appropriate technologies; by hiring, training, and retaining great staff; by developing and maintaining state-of-the-art and patient-friendly facilities; and by practicing medicine in a way that consistently delivers the best and safest care possible for each individual patient.
At CRHC, we fully support the nationwide effort to ensure that patients coming into the hospital with specific conditions receive recommended care. These recommendations are based on years of research on interventions that have been proven to improve outcomes for these conditions. We track many measures of our performance. We compare our performance to specific goals and take steps to improve as needed.
One way of measuring quality of patient care is to conduct surveys of our patients’ perception of their care while at Clarinda Regional Health Center. Eligible patients are surveyed from three areas of CRHC: inpatients, emergency department patients, and outpatients to Clarinda Medical Associates-East Clinic. CRHC utilizes a national, standardized survey instrument known as HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems).
At CRHC, we understand that technical excellence at delivering care is only part of the picture. Patients and family members expect and deserve an equally high level of compassion, communication, respect and comfort. Improving the patient experience is central to the CRHC commitment to being patient-centered. Click on the link below to see how CRHC is doing according to our patients.
Patient Survey Graphics for Clarinda Regional Health Center
Safety
Clarinda Regional Health Center staff has been at the forefront of efforts to identify and address the various threats to safety in a hospital setting. All staff and employees at CRHC are now, more than ever, focused on making our patients’ hospital experience free from harm.
It is the goal of Clarinda Regional Health Center to reduce medical errors and to prevent harm to our patients while they are receiving care at CRHC. Our goal is to engage and inspire our healthcare providers to create new safe cultures and reliable systems of care. A successful safety program must create reliable team interactions, ensure reliable well-designed processes, and promote a just culture. CRHC has a safety program that is aggressive and proactive. We continuously look for ways to make our patients and our environment safer. We also learn from the experiences of other hospitals, and from “good catches”, sometimes called “close calls”, to improve the safety of every process at CRHC. If you have any questions, comments or safety concerns, please contact Becky Baldwin at (712) 542-8270.
Becky Baldwin is a Registered Nurse with 35 years of nursing experience in Colorado and Iowa. She has worked in a variety of settings, including hospital medical/surgical units, psychiatric and chemical dependency. Becky attended Iowa Western Community College where she received her LPN training. She received her RN degree from DMACC in Ankeny, IA. Becky has been employed at Clarinda Regional Health Center since 2004.
Risk Management & Compliance
Clarinda Regional Health Center is committed to complying with all applicable laws, regulations, policies and procedures. CRHC has a formal compliance program and Compliance Committee which meets regularly to address all areas of compliance and risk management. The compliance program refers to all structures, activities and documents which are established, developed or undertaken to assess, promote, monitor and correct organizational practices to minimize the risk of noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations. For questions, comments or concerns related to Risk and Compliance, please contact Laurie Buckhahn at (712) 542-8382.
Laurie Buckhahn, RN, BSS has been Infection Prevention and Risk Management Director at Clarinda Regional Health Center since June, 2008. In April 2009 she was appointed Compliance Officer for CRHC. Laurie received her Diploma in Nursing degree in 1982 and worked in the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit and Cardiac Catheterization Lab for many years in Moline, Illinois. She then went on to receive her Certification in Diabetes Education and taught in an outpatient Diabetes Clinic in Davenport, Iowa. In 2003, Laurie received her Bachelor’s Degree from St. Ambrose University in Davenport. Her family then moved to southwest Iowa where Laurie worked as a Director of Nursing in long-term care for approximately 5 years before coming to CRHC.
Infection Prevention & Control
Click Here to learn more about our Infection Prevention & Control efforts.
Education for Patients & Staff
Click Here to learn more about the educational services we provide for patients and staff.