Innovations in Care Examples

Rapid Response Teams answer the call
Throughout the U.S., hospitals are developing teams to intervene more rapidly when a patient’s condition declines. These Rapid Response Teams, now being implemented at Children’s, are one element of the 100,000 Lives campaign organized by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Research shows that patients who “fail” in the hospital and need emergency care have an average of two warning symptoms over 6.5 hours. Rapid Response Teams increase safety for hospitalized children by encouraging staff and families to recognize early signals that patients need help, then immediately deploying critical care staff. John Fugate, MD, Children’s chief of critical care, is serving as a resource for other pediatric hospitals nationally in implementing these teams.

“Smart Pumps” strengthen patient safety
In 2005, Children’s was one of the first health care organizations in the country to implement smart pump technology, an important new tool to provide greater safety in giving patients intravenous (IV) medications. Computerized “smart pumps,” which deliver IV medications, provide new safeguards at the bedside to avert potential medication accidents.

Unlike earlier generations of pumps, these new smart pumps are pre-programmed with a variety of information, including drug administration protocols and dose limits specific to Children’s patients. If a nurse accidentally programs the pump to give a dose outside of the established limits, the pump halts or sounds an alarm. The nurse must then re-program the pump. These alerts are an additional safety measure to prevent serious cases of underdosing or overdosing medication.

A national resource in child abuse prevention and treatment
Children’s of Minnesota has received a second multi-year, multi-million dollar federal grant to support its work on behalf of abused children in a 12-state region. Midwest Children’s Resource Center at Children’s will continue to operate a regional children’s advocacy center, one of only four such centers in the United States, and first established at Children’s in 1999.

Safety Action Teams focus on improving care
Children’s nationally recognized patient safety program involves hundreds of employees working throughout the organization to provide the safest, most reliable care for patients. Each year, Safety Action Teams complete improvement projects in their units or departments, which focus on strengthening care during transfers and transitions.

Children’s innovative integrative medicine program
Children’s integrative medicine program is one of the few integrative medicine programs in the United States to be based at a pediatric hospital, which also combines its services with research and education. The program offers children access to the best practices in complementary and natural therapies, in conjunction with conventional medicine.