The Nursing Care Plan Committee is proud to announce the upcoming "new beginning" for the Epic Nursing Care Plan process at Salem Health. The current process has been streamlined to make it more user friendly while improving the ability for staff to communicate the patient story.
The number of care plans has been reduced from more than 50 six general plans including: Adult, Pediatric, OB, NICU & Newborn, End-of-Life, and Discharge. The problems on the care plan will reflect active patient issues based on the reason for admission, primary patient complaints, and significant changes in the patient's condition requiring hospitalization or a potential readmission. The definition of the plan of care has broadened making the entire chart part of the care plan. Nursing protocols, standards of care, clinical pathways, document flowsheets, medication administration records and more are considered part of the care plan. The care plans are system-based to improve the correlation between the nursing assessments and the plan of care.
The care plan revisions will go live Aug. 16, 2016, at 0800. For a short time, there will be two care plan formats: current patients will remain with the old format for the duration of the admission, while new admits will go-live with the new.
Staff training was assigned through HealthStream July 1. Superusers will be available on the units providing at-the-elbow support one-on-one throughout the go-live process. Drop-in practice sessions will also be available before implementation for those wanting more coaching. A Command Center will be set up to assist with the transition.
If you have any questions, please contact Zennia Ceniza at 503-814-1283 or Amy Stokes at 503-561-6175.