Improving the hematology/oncology paging system at Northwestern University.

Abstract

45 Background: To page specific services within the Division of Hematology and Oncology (Heme/Onc) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital previously required hospital staff to enter the specific service name into the web-based paging system. Turnover of faculty and staff, hospital growth, and use of locums staffing contributed to an increasing number of erroneous pages (pages intended for a different service). In this quality improvement initiative, we restructured the paging system so that all services within the Division of Heme/Onc populated when “hem” was entered into the web-based system. We aimed to decrease the number of erroneous pages received by heme/onc fellows by 20% with a subsequent improvement in perceived workload burden and job satisfaction. Methods: Pre- and post-intervention surveys were administered to all heme/onc fellows to assess impact on workload burden and job satisfaction. Fellows were asked to log all erroneous pages for a five-month period pre- and post-intervention. Results: Pre-intervention, fellows logged a total of 48 erroneous pages with 10 pages (21%) occurring between the hours of 10 PM and 6 AM. Post-intervention, a total of 37 erroneous pages were logged with only 3 pages (8%) occurring overnight. Of the 12 (92.3%) fellows that responded to the pre-intervention survey, one (8.3%) reported that the number of incorrect pages significantly increased workload burden, 9 (75%) increased workload burden, and 2 (16.7%) neither increased nor decreased workload burden. Five responders (41.7%) reported the number of incorrect pages significantly decreased job satisfaction, 5 (41.7%) decreased job satisfaction, and 2 (16.7%) neither increased nor decreased job satisfaction. 100% of fellows responded to the post-intervention survey. One (7.7%) reported that the number of incorrect pages significantly increased workload burden, 8 (61.5%) increased workload burden, and 4 (30.8%) neither increased nor decreased workload burden. Two responders (16.4%) reported the number of incorrect pages significantly decreased job satisfaction, 6 (46.2%) decreased job satisfaction, and 5 (38.4%) neither increased nor decreased job satisfaction. Conclusions: By changing the departmental nomenclature to a structured format, we decreased the number of erroneous pages received over a 5-month period by 23% with a 70% reduction in overnight pages resulting in an improvement in perceived workload burden and job satisfaction among Hematology/Oncology fellows.