Liaisons provide missing link
Source for inpatient/outpatient communication
For a smooth continuum of care from the inpatient to the outpatient setting, build a bridge that links the two entities, says Carolyn Speros, MEd, MSN, RNC, nurse practitioner at the University of Tennessee Family Practice Center in Memphis. Develop a way for inpatient and outpatient staff to communicate, Speros advises.
When she was the patient education coordinator at a hospital, Speros developed a liaison program to generate ongoing communication with the clinics.
"We contacted each doctor’s office that were our top admitters and asked them to appoint someone in the office as the patient education liaison," she says. "Some appointed office managers; some the receptionist or a nurse."
The liaison was the patient education department’s contact. Department staff gave the liaison the teaching materials patients received in the hospital, and the liaison communicated with the rest of the clinic staff. If the hospital created a new program that would benefit clinic patients, the patient education coordinator would provide the liaisons with the details.
"If we started a new diabetes program, the clinics would know if they had to fill out a form to refer a patient or if a phone call was all that was needed," says Speros.
Once a year, the hospital held a luncheon for all the liaisons. During the luncheon, they would discuss new patient education programs and materials, so clinics would keep abreast of all the patient teaching that was done when a patient was admitted to the hospital. All materials produced inhouse could be purchased by the clinics, which improved the continuity of teaching.
To ensure that the liaisons understood what their role was and how the partnership worked, Speros created an information sheet. It not only told them what they needed to do, such as attend the annual luncheon, but it also described how the hospital could help them educate their patients. For example, if the clinics needed educational materials on a new subject, the liaison could call Speros for a list of booklets the hospital had evaluated and recommended.
If patient education is decentralized at your hospital, the liaison program still can work, says Speros. Coordinate the program unit by unit.
"Have the individual responsible for coordinating teaching on the unit contact the physicians’ offices that are the most frequent admitters, and ask them to appoint a liaison. Then the unit patient education coordinator can make arrangements to contact the liaison once every other month," she explains.
The program also provides a good way for units to check up on staff teaching. For example, the clinic liaison has the opportunity to tell hospital staff that the patients who are coming to the clinic after hospitalization don’t understand how to check their blood sugar. The hospital could use the information to improve teaching.
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