CNO Statement

Looking back, 2024 was a year of innovation and improvements. We made big changes to our care model, we made meaningful changes to our communication strategies, and we introduced leading-edge innovations that were not possible five years ago. The common thread of all of the advances we made in 2024 was working better together.

Perhaps the simplest, yet most impactful innovation we introduced in 2024 was to conduct quarterly Nursing Town Halls. By establishing this two-way dialog, we allowed nurses to communicate directly with me, leaving them feeling empowered. Nurses' voices were being heard. Even when they could not be present at the Town Hall, they would submit their questions in advance and watch the video recording to hear my response. I felt like I got to know them, and even the night shift nurses got to know me during our 2 a.m. sessions. This open question-and-answer forum truly improved our collaboration and understanding between bedside caregivers and nursing senior leadership.

Another way we enhanced our nursing practice in 2024 was to reorganize our adult inpatient nursing teams to work together in disease specialties. The goal of this reorganization was to enable providers and nursing teams to devote their attention to improving quality, safety, length of stay and other clinical excellence outcome measures in critical care, stepdown, and acute care units. To meet our needs, we chose two new nursing directors and continued to rely on the talents of our existing nursing directors:

• Matthew Eckinger, BSN, RN, PCCN, became the Nursing Director for the UH Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute inpatient services.
• Justin Williams, BSN, RN, became the Nursing Director of Inpatient Surgical Specialties, which includes surgery, trauma and transplant.
• Arneta Montgomery, BSN, RN, CMSRN, continued as the Nursing Director for Medical Services
• Vickie Thomas-Januska, MBA, BSN, NA-BC, continued as the Nursing Director for inpatient services for UH Seidman Cancer Center.

The Care Team of Tomorrow program that we piloted in a few hospital units in 2023 worked so well, we expanded it across all Med-Surg department in our health system. Caregivers embraced the new roles and reported that their work environment improved. Read more about that new care delivery model.

In the spring of 2024, we launched the Intelligent Hospital Room project, with Virtual Nursing at its core. A virtual nurse isn't a robot or some artificial intelligence-driven chat feature, it is an actual human being who works a few days at the bedside and a few days offsite in a command center. Using a screen at the patient's bedside, the advanced technology in the command center is able to connect to the patient's room so that the virtual nurse can see the patient and interact with them and their family members. The virtual nurse can answer a call light, be available to answer patient or family member's questions, and assist with discharge. Bedside nurses can rely on their virtual colleagues to help verify medication or assist with the patient assessment. By continuously monitoring vital signs and indications of movement, the virtual nurse can alert the bedside nurse to a potential issue. The combination of an in-person nurse and the virtual nurse working together is one more example of how the nurses at UH Cleveland Medical Center achieve excellence in human caring.

The safety of our caregivers and our patients is our top priority. Unfortunately, workplace violence is a rising concern, not only at UH but in hospitals across the nation. That is why in November 2024, we added an additional tool to ensure a safer work environment: the launch of our Behavioral Emergency Response Team (BERT). This multidisciplinary team, used by many other healthcare systems, helps manage behavioral emergencies in hospitals. The BERT team can be called when a patient's behavior is disruptive or is a threat to themselves or others. BERT teams have been proven to reduce violent events and caregiver injuries as they proactively identify potential issues and resolve them before harm occurs. The BERT team brings experts to the bedside quickly to assist frontline caregivers with identifying and resolving concerns.

In April 2025, we will submit documentation of how we embody the standards of Magnet. Through the Magnet framework of Transformational Leadership, Structural Empowerment, Exemplary Professional Practice and New Knowledge, Innovation, and Improvements, it has been exciting to see how the nurses at UH Cleveland Medical Center are making positive strides to improve patient care and advance the profession of nursing.