Latest Corrective Action Plan progress report details 13 months of improvement as Parkland readies for survey

DALLAS – Parkland Health & Hospital System officials will present a 13-month summary of Corrective Action Plan (CAP) progress to the Board of Managers on Tuesday, April 23. 

Ron Laxton, RN, Parkland’s Chief Implementation Officer and Interim Chief Operations Officer, notes that Parkland has become a safer institution as a result of the CAP initiatives and a heightened focus on capturing and reporting safety and quality metrics. 

“We are auditing daily to ensure safety and quality measures are engrained in our everyday practices,” said Laxton. “Should we see an area where we’re not making progress, we intervene immediately to identify a better solution.” 

This latest progress report arrives as Parkland staff prepare for the Medicare Conditions of Participation survey to take place between May 1 and August 31. While the timing of the survey is entirely at the discretion of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), Parkland officials stress that every day is a “readiness” exercise. 

“Over the last few weeks we responded to two regional Code Yellow disasters, while still continuing to serve a very high volume of patients. As we responded to these challenges we also continued to complete our CAP implementation and finalize our survey preparations. Doing all of this as a team demonstrates that we will be ready when the surveyors arrive,” Laxton said. 

In addition, the report highlights the significant improvements made in infection prevention, nursing care documentation and resident supervision documentation. Substantial progress has occurred in patient access and throughput by overhauling the emergency and psychiatric services departments. While several areas require extra focus, according to the report Parkland is a far more efficient health care organization than it was over a year ago. 

"Everyone at Parkland has been putting in extraordinary effort to create and sustain an environment of safety and quality care for every person who passes through our doors,” said Debbie Branson, Chair of the Parkland Board of Managers. “The Board and I appreciate the dedication to our patients and their families. Our challenge is not to simply pass a survey, but to permanently institutionalize the safety and quality measures into our daily culture.” 

The presentation to the Board of Managers will be available on April 23. To view past reports, visit http://www.parklandhospital.com/whoweare/corrective_action_progress_reports/.