Reduction of hospital transfers: After integration of an advanced practice registered nurse practitioner and situation-background-appearance-review and notify form

Objectives: This article aims to address the hypothesis that the incorporation of the use of an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse and the Situation-Background-Appearance-Review and Notify form from the Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers program will reduce the number of hospital transfers from nursing home facilities. Methods: This hypothesis was measured using de-identified data on hospital transfers from three facilities, as well as de-identified Situation-Background-Appearance-Review and Notify and Quality Initiative forms completed by the nursing staff at these facilities. Results: The collective number of hospital transfers seen over the eight-week pre-intervention period was 115 compared with the collective number of transfers seen over the eight-week post-intervention period which was 75. This represents an 34.8% overall reduction in hospital transfers. Conclusions: Implications of this project include the confirmation that the use of the Situation-Background-Appearance-Review and Notify tool integration of an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse can help reduce hospital transfers. These findings can help to initiate future projects and protocol changes