HEABC awards recognize excellence in Vancouver Acute and Community
Vancouver Acute and Vancouver Community walked away from the 8th Annual Excellence In BC Health Care Awards Monday with both project and personal accolades.
While HEABC acknowledged Vancouver General Hospital with an Award of Merit for its work to reduce rates of C. Difficile, Vancouver Community celebrated with HEABC’s awarding of a Gold Apple to Anne McNabb, Director MH&A Inner City, for leading a large body of work that has saved lives on the Downtown Eastside.
View HEABC’s Awards Video here
Vancouver Community’s own Health Care Hero
Anne receives her award Monday. Pictured left to right: Laura Case, COO, Vancouver Community; Anne McNabb; Andrew MacFarlane, Director MH&A Urban.
Anne McNabb, Director, Mental Health & Addiction Inner City, has dedicated her career to serving vulnerable populations in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
“Her strength of character is an inspiration to us all in health care,” wrote Dawn Barbeau, admin assistant at VCH-Vancouver, who has been touched over the years by Anne’s commitment to care of those challenged by mental illness, severe addiction and extreme poverty. “Because of her advocacy, lives have been saved by reduced number of deaths by overdose in the downtown east side.”
Anne McNabb with her nominator, Dawn Barbeau.
Congratulations, Anne!
Your work, past and present, has made a real difference in the lives of so many.
View Anne McNabb’s 2014 Health Care Hero video
Read “An interview with Anne McNabb” from VCH News
“One case of CDI is one case too many.”
Accepting the award on behalf of everyone at VGH (l to r): Doris Bohl, clinical nurse educator; Teresa Johnston, in-hospital replenishment lead, Lower Mainland, HSSBC; Mike Petrie, manager, support services (laundry/housekeeping), BISS; Goldie Luong, director, special projects; Sydney Scharf, infection control project manager; Jacqueline Per, director, clinical quality & patient safety; and Rian Dodds, senior manager, facilities maintenance & operations.
Spend any time with Sydney Scharf, infection control project manager, and you’ll know the refrain: “One case of CDI is one case too many.”
Syd’s drive and all-out determination to eradicate C. difficile infections (CDIs) from VGH are, well, infectious. And the results speak for themselves.
Syd and Goldie Luong, director, special projects, struck the CDI Working Group in 2012 and since then the initiative has “spread” across VGH. “Our success is attributable to teamwork crossing all units, multiple departments and disciplines, and collaboration with our partners in care,” says Syd.
Partners like Chris Linden, supervising biomedical technologist, who was instrumental in increasing the hospital’s supply of Dinamaps (vital signs patient monitors). Today, all nurses are assigned a Dinamap at the start of their shifts, and with the equipment comes the responsibility to clean it between patients.
“Before, everyone was cleaning equipment in different ways, for different reasons, and all with the best intentions,” says Chris. Thanks to his research and the contributions of Aramark, HSSBC, BISS and others, VGH has a new equipment cleaning manual standardizing the cleaning process for everything from bed alarms to wheelchairs to maximize patient and staff safety across the hospital.
CDI champion: Unit champions like Cecilia Sarabia, an RN on CP7, will continue to play a vital role as VGH strives to reduce CDI rates even more.
On the units, CDI champions like Cecilia Sarabia, RN, serve as role models and cheerleaders for cleaning, hand hygiene and decluttering. Cecilia takes pride in the role and, most of all, in her unit’s success in reducing CDIs. “We’re improving our quality of patient care,” she says, “and we’re creating a better, cleaner work environment for each other at the same time.”
Doris Bohl and other clinical nurse educators are integral to the hospital’s success, too. Cleaning and decluttering aren’t the most glamorous work, she admits, but it’s good for patient care. At weekly huddles, Doris encourages teams to problem-solve and analyze each CDI case to determine how to prevent more in the future. “When we believe we can make a difference, the difference happens,” says Doris.
Since launching the CDI Initiative, the number of CDI cases at VGH has dropped 31%. The decrease equals 136 fewer patients acquiring this potentially devastating — even fatal — infection. And, because CDI increases a patient’s length of stay by an average of six days, approximately 816 hospital days have been saved, improving access to care for other patients in need.
While not our first priority, cost savings are another welcome benefit. Total savings so far exceed $330,000 due to less waste of supplies, less need for anitbiotics and more.
“I am just so proud of everything we’ve achieved together,” says Syd. “So many teams deserve praise — Transport, Equipment Depot, Biomedical Engineering, Facilities and Maintenance, Housekeeping, Nursing, Infection Control, Pharmacy, OT/PT and many others.”
Congratulations to our CDI Working Group, CDI Champions and all of VGH for enhancing patient care and earning a well-deserved HEABC Award of Merit – Top Innovation!