Bon Secours Memorial Regional Medical Center has reduced inpatient mortality by 12% overall for nonhospice patients and by 24% for nonhospice, nonintensive-care-unit patients during the past year by tracking and identifying trends in mortalities and developing action plans to reverse those trends.
The 225-bed facility in Mechanicsville, Va., has taken a number of steps as a result of the reduction in inpatient mortality: establishing a rapid response team to intervene with a standing order set and needed laboratory tests for conditions like sepsis, the top mortality diagnosis; standardizing relay of information about a patient's condition through situation, background, assessment and recommendation, or SBAR; and ensuring compliance with CMS core measures by presenting variances as a standing agenda item at medical staff meetings.
