Bedford VA Celebrates a Culture of Innovation

By Robert Cook

The Bedford VA will hold an open house on Sept. 9,2015to celebrate and shareseveral improvement projects that are designed to strengthen patient quality care.

The “Commitment to Excellence: Celebrating Our Continuous Improvement” event and the Improvement Recognition Awards Ceremony will be held inthe Oval at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital (Bedford VA)between 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.(In the event of inclement weather, the event will be oved to the Bedford VA theatre).

The public is invited to attend the open house that will be held from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. where they can meet the Bedford VA improvement team members, view their storyboards and vote for their favorite project.

Toya Desarmes, the Bedford VA’s System Redesign Coordinator, said 21 projects will be featured in the Oval that have been completed and/or implemented. Staff members from each department are encouraged to have a project or be involved with a project annuallygeared towardimprovement. Thisevent is held twice a year in March and in September.

Three of the projects that were recently recognized at the 2nd Annual VISN Improvement Summit, which encompasses all VA hospitals in New England. The three projects involve improved laundry processing, cutting down on food waste in the Domiciliary and increased Post Traumatic Stress Disorder awareness for first responders in Middlesex and Essex counties.

GRECC Personal Laundry Process Improvement Team members led by Tracy Claudio, the patient representative for Bedford VAMC, successfully found a way to address lost clothing by taking laundry that wasformerly sent to the Brockton VA to be done at the Bedford VA instead. New laundry units were purchased for several Community Living Center units and the new process is projected to save Bedford an estimated $115,000 per year.

To reduce food waste in the Domiciliary, an improvement team recommended a plan to reduce the amount of food served during the weekends by 30 percent without affecting the nutrition and quality because many Veterans are out on pass during that time. The implementation of a weekend continental breakfast as part of a Veteran-centric pull system resulted in an annual cost savings of $38,928 per year, (a 75 percent reduction in cost).

PTSD and First Responder Team members led by Bedford VA Lt. John Rocca and Elizabeth Price, the Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom Program Manager, developed training to help police officers, firefighters, EMTs and corrections officers detect signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder among Veterans to better serve them. Rocca and Price have trained several community police and fire departments.

Desarmes said there are also some sustainability projectsunderwayto help make the Bedford VA a greener facility.

Desarmes said the program yields more successful counter-measures each year as a result of greater engagement between the staff and the Veterans.

Robert Cook, Public Affairs, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital (Bedford VA)

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