Less paperwork, more purpose: one nurse’s story of streamlining success 

Something all hospitals have in common is policies. Lots of them. Just ask Susan Knotts, R.N., B.S.N., clinical nurse manager, Women and Newborn Unit, Memorial Health System (MHS) in Marietta, Ohio. At least every two years, she has dozens of policies to update to ensure her team is delivering world-class care for MHS’s patients. 

“We had ordered nitrous oxide equipment for our patients to ease their pain during labor,” Knotts says. “It arrived about the time when our hospital joined the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Since we hadn’t used one of these systems before, I needed to get a policy in place quickly.” 

Knotts, a 39-year veteran nurse, has historically invested significant time creating new policies and updating existing ones. “Usually, I look at policy examples from other hospitals as a starting point,” she says. “Then I have to call those hospitals and get clarification on aspects of their policies. I also research various standards and laws to make sure our policies follow Ohio state laws. It takes a lot of time to do all of that.” 

When working on the nitrous oxide system policy, however, Knotts came across a new opportunity: Health Care Consulting (HCC), which is part of the Care Network membership and gives access to Mayo Clinic policies. “It caught my attention as a possible way to do this work more efficiently, so I asked how I should go about trying HCC.” 

She continues, “I went onto the website, clicked a button, chose ‘policy information,’ and was done. My request was approved, and within two to three days, I had Mayo Clinic’s policy on using nitrous oxide equipment for labor and delivery. As a nurse manager, it was the easiest thing I’ve ever done.” 

Knotts says she normally spends hours researching and writing a policy. Sometimes a vendor provides a sample policy; those must be carefully reviewed and reconciled for Memorial Health’s use and, she says, still requires significant time. 

“Once I received Mayo Clinic’s policy, I made a few tweaks to incorporate some of our internal processes, but basically I was able to use the policy without much effort,” she says. “It literally decreased my time on this task from eight to 12 hours to maybe one or two hours, which is huge. Personally, I like spending more of my time with patients. Working less on policies allows me to do more of that.” 

According to Knotts, another benefit of leveraging Mayo Clinic policies is that references are included. “That’s another time saver, and I can be confident that I’m leveraging current policies,” she adds. 

Since that first HCC request, Knotts has requested more policies from Mayo Clinic, particularly those for high-risk deliveries. Overall, she’s very happy with how the Care Network relationship is benefiting her unit and MHS. 

“Mayo Clinic has been great for Memorial,” she says. “To be in a smaller community yet have this kind of access to its resources is wonderful for our staff and patients. We’re committed to giving world-class care in our community, and our collaboration with Mayo Clinic is another way we’re demonstrating that.”