Caller-Outer of the Month Award #7

Continuing our series, our Board of Directors awarded this month's caller-out award to Marylou Conant, RN, who works in our PACU (i.e., post-op area.) Regular readers will recall that this award is presented by the Board to reinforce the underlying concept of BIDMC SPIRIT -- that each person should be encouraged to call out problems in the workplace and be recognized and appreciated for his or her contribution to safety, quality, efficiency, and a better work environment.

Marylou's call-out was related to the availability and location of Calstat hand cleansing pumps. She noticed that hand hygiene in the PACU was being impaired. Why? The issue is that patients in the PACU are in bays that are close together, and you approach the patient from the foot-end of the bed. The Calstat dispensers are mounted at the head of the bed, on the wall, a location that does not support ease of good hand hygiene. But each bed does have a mobile bedside table that you pass on your way to the patient. Marylou and her colleagues figured out that you could "set a location" for a Calstat dispenser on every mobile bedside stand. They came up with a simple but elegant solution that provides both a visual cue as well as a slip-proof location on the mobile table using simple magnetic strips.

Marylou received a congratulatory letter, plus second row dugout tickets to a Red Sox game of her choice.