Achievement Awards Spotlight: Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital

July 07, 2023

HAP's annual Achievement Awards honor hospitals and health systems for their innovation, creativity, and commitment to patient care. The Achievement Awards showcase and share member hospitals’ and health systems’ successful programs and best practices.

This year, Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital received the Optimal Operations Award for its outstanding project to implement a new team-based approach to nursing to reduce staff turnover and vacancies, improve patient and staff satisfaction, and improve quality.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The challenge:  The pandemic amplified existing challenges for the health care workforce, putting an even stronger emphasis on reducing nursing vacancies, turnover, and contract labor usage, and improving staff satisfaction.
• Taking action:  Following extensive research and evaluation, the hospital launched a trial for a new team-based nursing approach in a medical/surgical unit, with a focus on allowing nurses to practice at the top of their license.
  • The model included a mixed team nursing model with registered nurses, licensed practical nurses (LPN), and care partners delivering care.
  • The hospital also created a pipeline with a local school to financially support the education of the next group of incoming LPN students and the future hospital workforce.
• Results:  Patient and employee outcomes showed significant improvement from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2022. Turnover and reliance on contact labor also significantly improved.
• Next steps:  Implementation of the unit was so successful that the initiative moved to a system-wide plan to see the same results on a larger scale.
• Quotable:  “Implementation of the team nursing care model allows for all nurses to work more efficiently, working to the top of their license and within their scope of practice,” the team noted in its entry.

Congratulations to Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital for its innovative approach to team-based care. Additional information about this effort and the other award-winning programs is available at HAP’s website.

Questions about the HAP Achievement Awards may be directed to HAP Member Services at (717) 561-5359.