{"id":14956,"date":"2023-06-13T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-13T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=14956"},"modified":"2023-06-13T18:45:40","modified_gmt":"2023-06-13T18:45:40","slug":"casting-a-surgical-safety-net-to-reduce-readmissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=14956","title":{"rendered":"Casting a surgical safety net to reduce readmissions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Post-operative surgical readmissions have a profoundly negative impact on the lives of Veterans. At Pittsburgh VA<\/a>, one team decided to take on this challenge.<\/p>\n

The Interdisciplinary Medical Preoperative Assessment Consultation and Treatment Clinic (IMPACT) team investigated the high readmission rates they were observing. The team made a significant discovery: Most post-surgery readmissions could have been avoidable if a safety net had been in place.<\/p>\n

Surgical Safety Net<\/a> reduces readmissions, improves Veterans\u2019 experiences and saves costs by identifying patients at risk for readmission and connecting them to underutilized resources. With excellent results at Pittsburgh VA, the team turned to Diffusion of Excellence in hopes of sharing the practice across VA to impact more Veterans.<\/p>\n

Making an IMPACT \u00a0<\/h2>\n

Launched in 2011, the IMPACT team, led by Dr. Visala Muluk, promotes a safe surgical journey. The team provides Veterans with coordinated virtual evaluations, education and a voice in their recovery. After two years, the team\u2019s hard work paid off: Pittsburgh VA readmission rates decreased by 25% and patients reported high satisfaction, trust and improved experience.<\/p>\n

The IMPACT team reduced Veterans\u2019 mortality and complication rates and created a foundation to sustain a solution for readmission rates.<\/p>\n

Casting the net benefits<\/h2>\n

Hoping to spark similar results across VA, Muluk applied to Diffusion\u2019s 2022 VHA Shark Tank Competition<\/a>. \u201cI applied for Shark Tank because we felt Surgical Safety Net yielded promising results at Pittsburgh VA,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Surgical Safety Net won the competition and Muluk chose to replicate her Promising Practice at Central Arkansas VA. Central Arkansas was one of several bids placed by VA Medical Center directors.<\/p>\n

\n
<\/a>
Top, left to right: Dr. Visala Muluk, Karen Wolfe, Jenny Hartzell, Jocelyn Scanlan, Pamela Malicki. Bottom, left to right: Mindy Shuttleworth and Tonya Ledford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Ready, set, replicate<\/h2>\n

\u201cShark Tank gave our team an opportunity to look at our process in a very positive perspective. Looking at our results and actual numbers gave us the confidence that this is a best practice. The competition gave me exposure across VA, and a lot of visibility among all stakeholders across the nation,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

With the support of their Diffusion Specialist Danielle Hagan, the team is spreading their practice across VA. The team is engaging national leads, VA program offices and VA innovators, especially those focused on improving surgical outcomes for our nation\u2019s Veterans.<\/p>\n

Surgical Pause Symposium<\/h2>\n

From June 21-22, the VA National Surgery Office and Diffusion will host the Surgical Pause Symposium at the National Simulation Center in Orlando, Florida.<\/p>\n

Surgical Pause<\/a> is a Diffusion National Practice developed by Dr. Daniel Hall and colleagues that provides a highly effective tool to screen Veterans for frailty prior to surgery. The symposium will feature talks from speakers like Muluk on implementing surgical best practices, sessions on developing frailty programs and a VA Surgical Innovation Show and Tell.<\/p>\n

These discussions address the VA Under Secretary for Health\u2019s strategic priorities of supporting Veterans\u2019 whole health and accelerating VA\u2019s journey to a High Reliability Organization.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are excited to network with VA colleagues and learn about this practice they\u2019ve seen featured on national and network calls,\u201d said Hagan. \u201cOur team has worked incredibly hard over the past three years and we are thrilled to share our successes and a sneak peek of what\u2019s to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Post-operative surgical readmissions have a profoundly negative impact on the lives of Veterans. At Pittsburgh VA, one team decided to take on this challenge. The Interdisciplinary Medical Preoperative Assessment Consultation and Treatment Clinic (IMPACT) team investigated the high readmission rates they were observing. The team made a significant discovery: Most post-surgery readmissions could have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":14958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,64,424,425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-inside-veterans-health","category-shark-tank-competition","category-surgical-safety-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14959,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14956\/revisions\/14959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}