An Inpatient Stroke Unit Quality Improvement Project to Increase Staff Introductions

Background: Staff introductions impact patients’ experiences and can reflect the quality of care provided by an organization. After being alerted by a stroke survivor about discomfort and fear associated with staff that failed to introduce themselves upon entry to the patient’s room, we aimed to improve staff introductions on a 20-bed stroke unit. Methods: We conducted staff-blinded observations of staff introductions when they entered patients’ rooms to obtain baseline performance data. A Plan-Do-Study-Act approach was then used to develop and implement multiple interventions to improve staff introductions, including visual aids placed outside rooms, enhanced identification badges, and staff education which included patient video testimony describing the perceived importance of staff introductions. The citing of staff names on our Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) reports was used as a surrogate measure for staff introductions, with baseline reports compared to post-intervention reports. We also identified a control unit that did not participate in the intervention for comparison, examining their HCAHPS reports for the citing of staff names.Results: A total of 20 staff-blinded observations were completed prior to intervention implementation, with 55% of staff introducing themselves to patients. Following implementation, staff introductions improved to 73% (n=15). HCAHPS results citing staff by name increased from 57% prior to intervention implementation, to 87% post-intervention. Control unit HCAHPS findings decreased over the same measurement time periods from 62% to 31%. Conclusions: Patients’ perceptions of discomfort and fear tied to staff introductions are important to provision of high quality stroke care. Our introductions intervention has enhanced the stroke patient hospitalization experience.