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Massena Memorial Hospital to use whiteboards in patient rooms as tool to help carry out plan of care

Posted 9/22/15

By ANDY GARDNER MASSENA -- Patient rooms at Massena Memorial Hospital will soon be outfitted with whiteboards to help coming up with patient care plans. Although it may seem like a simple measure, …

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Massena Memorial Hospital to use whiteboards in patient rooms as tool to help carry out plan of care

Posted

By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- Patient rooms at Massena Memorial Hospital will soon be outfitted with whiteboards to help coming up with patient care plans.

Although it may seem like a simple measure, members of the MMH Board of Managers said it could help immensely.

“I really think it’s going to be a real plus for us,” MMH Trustee Dave MacLennan said.

“I don’t want anyone to think things are mysteriously going to change. Whiteboards are cues to our staff,” MMH CEO Robert Wollebin said.

He suggested that physicians, nurses and others providing care get some additional training in how they work.

Wollebin said one function they could serve is setting goals for pain control for patients with severe pain issues. They ask patients to rank their pain on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most intense.

The healthcare providers would put something like the goal being to get their pain down to a 4, also writing down when their last dose of pain medicine was administered and when they can expect the next.

“It doesn’t sound complicated, but I can tell you it’s a complicated process in a hospital that’s not used to doing it,” Wollebin said. “There really is not much mystery to the process, you have to walk in a room and do it all the time.”

The boards are printed up and should be installed in the near future.