Zynx Health Names Nurse Team and Individual Winners of Inaugural "Clinical Improvement Through Evidence" CITE Award

Zynx Health recognizes six teams of nurses plus individuals for excellence in use of clinical decision support tools to advance care

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Zynx Health

Jul 21, 2015, 12:35 ET

LOS ANGELES, July 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Zynx Health™, the market leader in providing evidence and experience-based clinical improvement and mobile care coordination solutions, announced today the nursing winners of its inaugural 2015 "Clinical Improvement Through Evidence" (CITE) award. The annual CITE award recognizes nurses for excellence in the use of clinical decision support (CDS) solutions to drive improvements in patient care.

Zynx Health, part of the Hearst Health network, is the pioneer and market leader in evidence-based clinical improvement and mobile care solutions that provide the care guidance to enhance quality, improve care coordination, and decrease variation across an individual's health journey. With Zynx Health, healthcare organizations exceed industry demands for delivering high-quality care at lower costs. Zynx Health partners with healthcare organizations to continuously and measurably improve care.

Grant Campbell, MSN, R.N., senior director for nursing strategy and informatics at Zynx Health, said, "It was a difficult process choosing our CITE winners from so many impressive submissions. Each nursing professional and team demonstrated remarkable achievements. We're excited to recognize and congratulate them all for their excellent work using clinical decision support to deliver measurably improved care to their patients."

Zynx Health names CITE award winners in the following categories: patient-centered approach, innovative use of CDS, process improvement, and measurable outcomes.

For patient-centered approach, Zynx recognizes Mercy Medical Center's Jeannette Jefferies, MS, R.N., CCRN, Mary Ann Dipietro, MSN, R.N., April Saathoff, MS, R.N., CPHIMS, Beth Kilmoyer, D.N.P, R.N.-B.C., Bobbi Pierre, BSN, R.N., Elizabeth Soliman, BSN, R.N., Kris Olszewski, BSN, R.N., Gloria Benton, R.N., Jenica Scollan, R.N., Ann Willner, R.N., Maria Michaels, R.N., Kelly Ackerman, R.N., and Brittany McCormick, R.N. The nursing team used the evidence-based content in ZynxCare^® to build entirely new plans of care to focus on the patient and family rather than the clinician's workflow. They further designed their plans of care to be used across multiple care disciplines, allowing for better communication between providers and more continuity of care. The results: Patient-specific, appropriate care plan documentation increased from 66 percent to more than 90 percent, evidence-based patient education is now provided to 100 percent of patients, and 90 percent of nurses report high satisfaction with the care plan process.

For innovative use of CDS, Zynx recognizes Meritage Accountable Care Organization's Andrea Kmetz, R.N., Nhi Train, R.N., Theo Wirt, R.N., Nazeena Gill, R.N., and Dorsa Barzin, R.N. This nursing team is an early adopter of ZynxCarebook™, an evidence-based mobile care coordination solution used to improve their communication. The team's creation of a standardized care process ensured that all Meritage ACO beneficiaries received proper education about their discharge plan, could schedule follow-up visits with their primary care physician, and had adequate safety measures in place at home. The results: A remarkable 10.2 percent 30-day hospital readmission rate for its highest-risk patients, well below the national average of 21 percent for Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries.

For process improvement, Zynx recognizes Erie County Medical Center's Bill Arnold, R.N., Lynn Whitehead, R.N., and Nicole Knox, R.N. This nursing team created a replicable and sustainable process to consistently improve and update their evidence-based plans of care using ZynxCare content. The plans of care are closely monitored to meet standards, and the outcomes are reported monthly for process improvement. The results: More than 97 percent of the plans of care are initiated and updated to reflect changes in patient condition. Appropriate outcomes are identified and prioritized based on assessment data approximately 97 percent of the time.

For measurable outcomes, Zynx Health recognizes three nursing teams, all of whom generated outstanding outcomes:

Monongahela Valley Hospital's entire Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Nursing Team, as well as Cheryl Panza, R.N., CMSRN NCIS, and Tricia Golden, R.N. To achieve an aggressive goal of zero central-line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in the ICU, the team researched best practices using ZynxCare evidence and created evidenced-based interventions and protocols to care for these patients. For example, nurses now bathe patients using chlorhexidine-based disinfectants on a daily basis and consolidate lab draws. The results: Monongahela Valley Hospital not only achieved their "stretch" goal of being CLABSI free in the ICU, but has also sustained this outcome for more than two years.
Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center's Traci Navin, R.N. Navin created a quality and safety committee that evaluates fallouts in regards to catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), CLABSIs and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar). She helped to develop evidence-based nurse driven protocols for removal of Foley catheters and created a decision tree to inform care for hypoglycemic patients. The result: Florida Hospital Memorial has reduced their CAUTIs by 50 percent.
Banner Children's at Cardon Children's Medical Center's Kimberly Byrne, R.N., BSN, CPN, AE-C. Byrne assisted in the development of clinical practice guidelines for pediatric patients with asthma and bronchiolitis. These guidelines call for a collaborative approach among physicians, nurses and respiratory therapists to assess and score a child exhibiting either asthma or bronchiolitis symptoms. That score then determines the interventions needed to administer the right care. Results: A decreased asthma length of stay from 2.7 percent in 2011 to 0.9 percent in 2014, and decreased cost per case for asthma from $2,069 in 2010 to $1,419 in 2014.

Zynx Health awarded an honorable mention to the Harlem Hospital pressure ulcer reduction strategy team for their work implementing evidence-based practices to reduce pressure ulcers.

About Zynx Health

Zynx Health, part of the Hearst Health network, is the pioneer and market leader in evidence- and experience-based clinical improvement and mobile care solutions that provide the care guidance to enhance quality, improve care coordination, and decrease variation across an individual's health journey. With Zynx Health, healthcare organizations exceed industry demands for delivering high-quality care at lower costs under value-based reimbursement models. Zynx Health partners with healthcare organizations to continuously and measurably improve care every day, for every patient, every time. To learn more, visit www.zynxhealth.com or call 855.367.ZYNX.

About Hearst Health

Zynx Health is part of the Hearst Health network, which also includes FDB (First Databank), MCG and Homecare Homebase, and Hearst Health International. The mission of the Hearst Health network is to help guide the most important care moments by delivering vital information into the hands of everyone who touches a person's health journey. Each year in the U.S., care guidance from the Hearst Health network reaches 84 percent of discharged patients, 174 million insured individuals, 35 million home health visits, and 4 billion prescriptions. Extensions of the Hearst Health network include Hearst Health Ventures and the Hearst Health Innovation Lab. www.hearsthealth.com

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