Streamlining the NYPH Restraint Data Monitoring Process

New York-Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) Department of Nursing is committed to the provision of safe, quality care to its diverse patient population. The vision of the Department of Nursing is to be one of the nation's leaders in nursing best practices; quality, safety and outcomes; research; education; and service excellence. The Capstone team was entrusted to develop a streamlined monitoring process for patient restraint that is efficient, reliable, compliant with regulatory agency requirements, and replicable. The Capstone team reviewed current manual process flow of patient restraint monitoring, hard copies of monitoring tools, and performed an extensive literature review. Nursing Quality Assurance Governing Council members, Patient Care Directors of pilot units, front line staff, Nursing Informatics, clients, and individuals from peer organizations were interviewed to better understand the scope of the project. The information was mapped out, researched, analyzed and a report of initial findings was submitted to the client as a point of reference for NYPH as it moves toward building a more efficient and accurate quality monitoring process. The team's recommendation will provide a hand-off to the client that presents a streamlined process, which includes data mining, timelines, and milestones. The recommendation also defines clear ownership and accountability of the specific campus-based Nursing Quality Assurance Governing Council that can be consistently and equally applied to other quality initiatives.