Coordinator of Quality/Risk Management
At Mountain Communities Healthcare District (MCHD), the quality of care is of the highest importance. We have an active Quality Assurance Program that reviews services across the entire district. The Quality Committee, Medical Staff and Board of Directors monitor over 100 quality measures – including metrics such as hand washing, the average length of stay, medications, and 15/30 day readmissions. This data is used to drive program and service improvement. An example of a specific measure is the “time a patient enters the Emergency Room lobby to the time they see a provider”. In 2017, the average wait time at Trinity Hospital was 15.25 minutes, while the state average is 22 minutes.
Many quality measures are driven by the care given by nursing staff. At Trinity Hospital, nurses are involved in direct patient care of admitted and emergency patients, and also assist with inpatient and outpatient surgeries, procedures, administrative and regulatory duties, education, quality assurance, infection control and assisting patient families with discharge needs. Last year, licensed nurses spent over 45,500 hours working at our facilities.
MCHD currently employs 24 Registered Nurses, 10 Licensed Vocational Nurses, 13 Certified Nursing Assistants, six Nursing Assistants and five Emergency Room Technicians. We are in a rural district and as a result, it can be difficult to recruit nursing staff. Despite our challenges we are always working to increase nursing staff. By increasing staff, more availability will be open for both acute patients and those with needs for rehabilitation such as physical therapy or post-surgery in Trinity Hospital’s Swing Bed Program. This helps patients from Trinity County be closer to family while they are getting strong enough to go home.
In 2017, nursing staff on the Medical Surgical Unit cared for 392 patients adding up to 2,067 patient days. The Skilled Nursing Facility nursing staff attended to 13 residents totaling 1,903 resident days. The Emergency Department Nursing Staff had 4,622 patient encounters. The Outpatient Program had 149 visits and Home Health had 304 patient visits. In addition, there were 97 surgeries and 399 procedures completed.
Comments from nurses who chose to work at MCHD:
RN: “I’ve been in Health Care for the last 25 years and the reason I became an RN thirteen years ago was to be there to affect change in a patient’s life when they are at their worst.
I came to Trinity hospital by chance to get away from the big box hospitals down in Redding and rapidly fell in love with the place. At Trinity hospital you’re not just a number and that is for both the nurses and patients. It’s a very special place that focuses on the wellbeing of the patients and allows us time to nurture them back to health.”
RN: “I started in Health Care in 2006 as a CNA and went on to get my nursing degree. I have lived in Trinity County for about 25 years and went back to school with the goal of becoming a nurse to work in Trinity County. I wanted to be able to help provide quality health care to our rural community and be an advocate for the unique needs of our patient population.”
“Save one life… and you are a hero. Save one hundred lives… and you are a nurse.” Anonymous
