Did you know that there are 870 laboratory professionals employed by Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Clinical Laboratories, performing over 4 million clinical tests every year, with countless more involved in research efforts?
Laboratory teams work hard behind the scenes to provide information and results that ultimately drive an estimated 70% of healthcare decisions. Reducing harm and avoiding unnecessary, duplicative testing are critical elements of promoting the efficient delivery of care. From a patient perspective, they are necessary for patients to feel they have had positive healthcare experiences and outcomes.
The Clinical Labs division at Cincinnati Children’s recognized the need for an in-patient phlebotomy team to address the problem of blood-draw duplication and quality control. It began providing in-patient phlebotomy to patients in June of 2018, and in less than a year, having this team in just one area of the hospital demonstrated nearly a 70% reduction in specimens rejected for quality and quantity issues.
The victory is even more impressive than it sounds: these reductions mean over 900 recollections were avoided in a year, preventing approximately 4000 mL in unnecessary blood draws, 900 re-sticks or repeated line accesses, and delays in delivery of test results. Keeping in mind that the lab’s patient population is composed of children, just imagine how much pain, fear, and stress has been avoided for some of the region’s most fragile and vulnerable patients and their families through this initiative.
“Words cannot express how excited our team is to be selected as finalists for the 2019 Inspire Healthcare Awards,” shares Danielle Arrasmith, Supervisor of the Clinical Laboratories’ Phlebotomy Team. “I am so very proud of our team and what we have accomplished. Each and every person on the team should feel just as proud, all of them played a vital role in the success of the project. It’s exciting that they are being recognized outside of our organization for their efforts. I am thankful for their dedication and for all that they do each and every day.”
Following the success represented in the data above, the phlebotomy team continues to expand their efforts to other areas within the hospital, as well as Children’s College Hill campus and the Lindner Center of Hope. They look forward to reporting more data in the future about the ongoing impressive results this team has demonstrated regarding significant reduction in the recollection of blood specimens, which greatly improves efficiency and workflows.
The Health Collaborative is proud to recognize the Phlebotomy Team at Cincinnati Children’s as finalists for the Richard M. Smith MD Leadership in Quality Improvement Award!
Watch for more articles profiling the work of our award finalists throughout October, as we lead up to the 2019 Inspire Healthcare Dinner and Awards Celebration.
