On average 82% of all HMSL med/surg (excluding IMU) patients are on telemetry, and 42.5% of telemetry patients have been on telemetry >72 hours. As a result, HMSL is implementing specific criteria for telemetry monitoring to decrease alarm fatigue, improve efficiency, and ensure telemetry monitoring is available when needed. View the approved HMSL Criteria for … [Read more...]

Please remember to sign into the Texas Electronic Vital Events Registrar (TxEVER) system as soon as you receive notification that a death certificate is awaiting your signature. While Texas law requires death certificates to be filed no later than ten days from the date of the death, it's strongly encouraged that you sign them as quickly as possible to support our grieving … [Read more...]

Houston Methodist is committed to providing safe and effective management of urethral catheters while preventing catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) in accordance with nationally recognized standards and evidence-based research. A physician order is required for insertion of urethral catheters. As outlined in the following nurse driven protocols, approved by … [Read more...]

We’ve seen an increase in situations in which attending physicians are rescinding disaster orders placed by intensivists, allowing visitors despite COVID and isolation restrictions. As a reminder, isolation restrictions and disaster orders are in place to ensure community and staff safety. Please review the HM Guidelines for the Discontinuation of Isolation for COVID-19 … [Read more...]

As we continue working to increase OR efficiencies and maximize patient throughput, another key area of focus is on first case on time starts (FCOTS). First case delays in our ORs create a ripple effect for the remainder of the day, delaying subsequent cases, frustrating patients and staff, decreasing efficiency and increasing costs. To mitigate these issues, our HMSL surgical … [Read more...]