Throughout Temple Health, charge nurses play a crucial role in delivering efficient care—and as a patient’s discharge date nears, facilitating communication across their care team and ensuring their needs are met becomes even more critical.
“Efficiency is more than a metric,” explains Chaudron Carter Short, PhD, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, Executive Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive of Temple Health. “It’s about anticipating needs, reducing delays, and working as a team so every patient receives the right care at the right time. When nurses lead with efficiency, we improve the patient experience, open up beds for those who need them most, and help our teams deliver care that is both safe and seamless.”
Michael Giaccio, RN—a charge nurse on 3E, a 28-bed medical/surgical unit at TUH-Main Campus—is a model of how charge nurses can enhance care efficiency while promoting patient safety and satisfaction.
“We depend on our charge nurses to understand what their patients need so they can receive timely care and be safely discharged,” says Daniel del Portal, MD, MBA, Senior Vice President of Medical Operations and Chief Clinical Officer of Temple Health. “When Michael is in charge, he knows what every patient on his unit needs, and he makes sure they get it. Whether it’s a procedure, medications, therapy, a scan, or other tests: you name it, he makes sure it happens efficiently. He always knows who’s being discharged today or tomorrow, and he makes sure they get what they need to be ready.”
Maximizing Efficiency for Lifesaving Care
“Improving care efficiency is all about clear communication, understanding each patient’s needs, and identifying safe and appropriate needs to reduce delays,” Giaccio explains. “As nurses, we want to safely serve our community, and that means getting well patients home to their families and sick patients into the hospital so they can receive care.”
On the day a patient is scheduled to leave, the goal is to have discharge orders entered by 11 am and the patient out by 2 pm—avoiding extra days in the hospital and opening up beds for others who need inpatient treatment.
“We’re here to take care of people who need help, and delivering efficient care enables us to have beds available when people need them,” Dr. del Portal says. “Having all of our team members focused on efficiency of care maximizes our ability to deliver lifesaving treatment to our community.”
Making an Impact Beyond the Unit
Timely discharge practices on inpatient units also create positive ripple effects across the entire hospital.
For one, care efficiency ensures that a hospital can accept and treat complex patients who are transferred from other sites. It also reduces the time and number of admitted patients boarding in the Emergency Department. This opens up ED capacity, increases the number of patients who can be treated in the ED, reduces wait times for emergency care, and limits the number of patients who leave without receiving treatment.
This also increases savings for our Health System and allows us to continue ongoing investments that benefit our patients and community—including adding and expanding critical healthcare services, improving neighborhood outreach, acquiring new technology, and growing our facilities.
A True Team Effort
For Giaccio, who has worked at Temple Health for five years, having a team of colleagues dedicated to providing the highest quality care ensures the admission and discharge processes run smoothly on their busy unit.
“Care efficiency is a team sport that requires good communication and everyone working together to get the patient the care they need,” Dr. del Portal agrees.
In celebration of his commitment to teamwork, Giaccio received four tickets to a Phillies game. It was a way to say thank you for his dedication to our patients, and for ensuring they receive the safest and most efficient care.