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September 21, 2006 Exempla St. Joseph's Medical Center in Denver, CO has an impressive cost/case for ventilator patients. Over the past four years, various improvements have been implemented leading to lower LOS for ventilator patients, lower pharmacy and respiratory costs, and improved utilization of ancillary lab & imaging services. St. Joseph's ICU Intensivist and Clinical Educator recently shared their key strategies to manage these challenging situations.
- Evidence-based and cross-specialty agreement on outcomes and strategies for managing ventilator patients.
- 24/7 availability to drive a weaning process.
- Manage sedation & delirium for optimum weaning.
- Over the three years that they have been managing sedation & delirium, pharmacy costs for these DRG's have declined by over $2000 per case.
- Weekly explanatory rounds by the entire ICU team (Intensivist, RT, Pharmacist, Nurses, etc.).
- Eliminate "routine" or standing order ancillary tests.
Want to learn more deatail about each strategy? If you are an HMC Partner, login to HMCCentral.com to read the full article.
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