April 1, 2007
Top 25 Innovators in Healthcare
Julia Napper, RN
Director of Performance Improvement and Clinical Safety, Parkland Health & Hospital System, Dallas, Texas
Napper spearheaded the effort at Parkland to implement technology-based critical test result management (CTRM) as a strategy to improve patient safety and boost staff productivity. In a study of 3,000 sentinel events, the Joint Commission found that two-thirds were the result of ineffective communication. Three-quarters of medical malpractice claims against radiologists are due to communication problems. With CTRM, Parkland's radiologists have gone from spending 45 to 60 minutes a day on critical test results down to just 2 to 3 minutes with much better results. Napper and her husband, Terry, who is Parkland's director of radiology, have written about and presented on the topic.