“Timely and thorough rounding is crucial to patient safety,” says Jeanine Penn, MSN, RN, CNS, Director of Nursing at Temple University Hospital’s Episcopal and Northeastern Campuses. It’s a practice that’s foundational to Temple Health’s success, and that involves observing our patients, monitoring their behavior, and checking for any potential safety, security, compliance, and cleanliness issues.
We’ve worked hard to emphasize the importance of consistent rounding across the Health System, and that message has been particularly effective at Episcopal, where the majority of our Behavioral Health patients receive treatment.
“Patient rounding is the single most critical thing we can do in Behavioral Health to keep patients safe,” says LJ Rasi, LSW, Episcopal’s Director of Behavioral Health. “Our standard level of care is that all Behavioral Health patients must be assessed visually at least every 15 minutes. From April 1 to May 9, 2024, we held a competition to see which of our staff members could record the highest number of timely rounds.”
The results were astounding: the first-prize winner, Marie Cadet, completed 10,334 timely rounds within that 39-day period alone. The second-place finisher, Malik Fields, recorded 8,901 rounds, and Suhaylah Abdur-Rahman came in third with 8,243 rounds.
Building an Essential Connection
“I round every 5 to 6 minutes,” explains Cadet, who has worked as a Mental Health Tech at Episcopal for the last 9 years. “As Techs, we do continuous rounding: we basically never stop.”
“There’s a lot that can happen in 15 minutes, which is why continuous rounding is so important,” Fields, who is also a Mental Health Tech, says. “Even after I’ve finished a round, I’ll still walk by with a computer and check to make sure no one went into a room that I didn’t see the first time around. That’s our job: we have people’s safety in our hands.”
Cadet and Fields also believe rounding is an essential part of building a connection with patients. “When they see us rounding, they start to recognize us, and they know they can come to us with questions,” Fields says. “They might say, ‘Hey, we need some washcloths or towels,’ or they might ask us whether their social worker is in today. We’re also in charge of relaying messages between nurses and physicians and patients, so when we’re rounding, patients can come up to us and say, ‘Hey, I take this medication, but it’s making me feel drowsy,’ and then we’ll go and find their nurse or doctor.”
'Patient Safety is My First Priority'
Fields, who is about to start his sixth year at Episcopal, sees thorough rounding as one of his most essential duties. “It’s vital for every Mental Health Tech to do their rounds thoroughly before documenting any information regarding a patient,” he says. “This information has to be accurate, because the doctors and nurses use it to give patients the appropriate medication. When I do my rounds, patient safety is my first priority. Rounding is very important, and I take it very seriously—and I do my rounds to the best of my ability.”