A Call Light Responsiveness Program.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Practice
• Quality Improvement
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Purposeful hourly rounding and whiteboard communication are established methods to decrease patient call light use.
• Elevated call light activation rates indicate a need for improved patient response systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a bundled purposeful hourly rounding intervention on patient call light activation and response times.
• To assess the effectiveness of continuous quality improvement in enhancing patient communication and reducing unnecessary interruptions.

Main Methods:

• A continuous improvement initiative employed retrospective data analysis, collecting data pre-intervention, early post-intervention, and during the maintenance phase.
• The intervention involved implementing a bundled approach to purposeful hourly rounding for all patients.

Main Results:

• Initially, call light frequency increased post-intervention, but call lights exceeding 5 minutes did not change.
• During the maintenance phase, call lights per patient/unit day and those exceeding 5 minutes significantly decreased (P < .001) compared to pre- and early post-intervention periods.

Conclusions:

• Implementing a bundled purposeful hourly rounding strategy effectively reduced overall patient call light usage.
• The intervention demonstrated a sustained decrease in both the frequency and duration of patient call lights, enhancing care responsiveness.