Utilizing the Decedent Affairs Navigator to Ensure High Reliability Communication and Morgue Processes
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Published on: January 8, 2020
Lauren Koniaris1, Joy Mamuszka1, Ijeoma Okeke1,2
1Hackensack Meridian Health.
Insights
Hackensack Meridian Health reduced lost patient belongings and bodies by 83% by implementing the Decedent Affairs Navigator. This system streamlines postmortem processes, improving efficiency and reducing healthcare worker burnout.
Area of Science:
- Healthcare Management
- Process Improvement
- Digital Health
Background:
- The COVID-19 pandemic led to challenges in tracking deceased patients, managing their belongings, and ensuring proper postmortem procedures at Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH).
- These issues contributed to lost items, misplaced bodies, and premature release of deceased individuals, impacting workflow and potentially patient dignity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To standardize postmortem checklists across all age groups (adult, pediatric, neonatal, fetal) and centralize documentation using a Decedent Affairs Navigator.
- The goal was to enhance transparency, reduce redundant documentation, alleviate healthcare worker burnout, and support HMH's commitment to being a high-reliability organization (HRO).
Main Methods:
- A multidisciplinary team adapted the Decedent Affairs navigator, incorporating features like Shared Workspaces and reduced documentation burden.
- The system was implemented network-wide on October 18th, 2023, utilizing on-site workshops and digital tutorials for training.
Main Results:
- A significant 83% decrease in incidents involving missing decedent items and/or bodies was achieved.
- Duplicative documentation was reduced by 11.4%, resulting in an average time saving of 31 seconds per documentation instance.
Conclusions:
- The Decedent Affairs navigator provides a specialized, centralized platform within the Epic system for managing death-related procedures.
- This tool simplifies workflows, reduces the loss of deceased patients' bodies and personal property, and enhances organizational reliability.
Background:
As Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) experienced an influx of deceased patients during the COVID-19 pandemic three circumstances recurred: 1) the location of deceased patients were not being tracked properly, 2) the belongings and bodies of the deceased were being lost throughout the system, and 3) bodies were being released before autopsies were performed. HMH took on the U.S. Surgeon General's challenge to reduce healthcare worker burnout by developing a morgue tracking process called Decedent Affairs.
Objectives:
To standardize the postmortem checklists for the adult, pediatric, neonatal and fetal demise populations and consolidate centralized documentation in a Decedent Affairs Navigator. This would promote transparency in the morgue tracking process, reduce redundancy in documentation, improve overall burnout, and aid in HMH's devotion to being a high reliability organization (HRO).
Method:
A multidisciplinary team customized the Decedent Affairs navigator to HMH's needs. Key features included Shared Workspaces, Reduction of Documentation Burden, and Organization of Decedent Tracking. The navigator went network-live on October 18th, 2023. Implementation approaches included the use of on-site workshops and digital tutorials.
Results:
There was an 83 % rate decrease in the number of incidents of missing decedent items and/or bodies. Duplicative documentation reduced by 11.4%, saving documentation time by 31 seconds.
Conclusion:
The Decedent Affair navigator offers a niched and centralized hub within Epic to document information related to death procedures that can simplify workflows and reduce frequencies of lost bodies and personal properties of deceased patients in healthcare organizations.
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