Prairie Lakes Healthcare System (PLHS) has reduced its length-of-stay from 4.2 to 3.8 days.

In addition, medical-surgical nursing hours per patient day decreased from 10.2 to 7.5.

Nursing time in direct patient care is currently measured using PDA work sampling methodology in the TCAB project.  PLHS is seeing 60 percent of nurse time spent in direct care compared to the national average of 33 percent.  

Overall job satisfaction has increased significantly since implementation of the “A Self-Organized Agile Team” model.  The overall job satisfaction on the medical surgical unit jumped from 46 percent satisfied in 2000 to 83 percent in 2006, putting it higher than the national benchmark of 73%, according to HR Solutions International, Inc. in Chicago, a company that conducts the employee opinion survey for Prairie Lakes. 

For the past 12 months, monthly voluntary nursing turnover on the medical surgical unit monthly has ranged from 0% to 5%. 

Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores are higher for the medical surgical unit now than OB, which has always been the leader.