Overview
St. Anthony's Hospital, part of the Baycare Health System, needed to minimize the number of days its patients were on ventilators--because they longer they are, the more likely they are to develop unwanted complications. An improvement team collected data on more than 400 patients, then ran ANOVA and regression analyses to uncover why some patients stayed on ventilators too long. The team discovered that the lack of a certain clinical protocols and procedures caused too much treatment variability. After establishing clear protocols and procedures, and ensuring that everyone documented their actions, the hospital reduced ventilator days by 38 percent and saved itself $650,000 per year.