A RESIDENT LED IMPROVEMENT PROJECT: THINK TWICE STICK ONCE
This research letter describes a project that aimed to decrease the number of times a patient is stuck with a needle to draw blood for labs in an inpatient setting. This project used the COST framework to structure the intervention which included:
Interrupted Time-Series Analysis Showing Average Number of Phlebotomies per Patient on the Internal Medicine Service
Average number of phlebotomies per patient per day with introduction in July 2014 of the “Think Twice, Stick Once” program to reduce the number of phlebotomies per day.
The UCSF Caring Wisely Program is an ongoing program at UCSF that aims to improve the quality of health care and reduce costs to the health care system. The program is designed to engage clinicians on the frontlines of care in the development of project based solutions to local areas in need of improvement.
The program supports three to four projects each year selected with a combination of crowdsourcing, selection criteria including improving quality without passing costs to others, and alignment with medical center improvement priorities.
Projects are supported by an expert implementation team, which includes coaching of implementation development.
1- Wheeler D, Marcus P, Nguyen J. Evaluation of a resident-led project to decrease phlebotomy rates in the hospital: think twice, stick once. JAMA Int Med. 2016l176(5):708-710.
2-Gonzales R, Moriates C, Lau CY, et al. Caring wisely: a program to support frontline clinicians and staff in improving healthcare delivery and reducing costs. J Hosp Med. 2017;12(8):662-667.