'Education is the foundation of quality'

One of Nora Bondi's earliest roles in her nursing career was as a clinical liaison, working with patients before discharge from the hospital to demonstrate home infusion care and answer questions. It was also one of her favorite roles.

“It has such a large impact on patient care,” said Bondi, R.N., senior director of operations for North Carolina, Option Care.

Bondi, who recently presented the results of a study on the pre-discharge education and how it improves outcomes, spoke with HME News about the importance of patient education and washing your hands.

HME News: Why did you do this study?

Nora Bondi: Quality is at the center of everything we do at Option Care and education is essentially the foundation. I wanted to be able to demonstrate the value that clinical liaison education has on patients and the best way to do that is with outcomes. Nobody had really quantified the role of pre-discharge home infusion education on patient outcomes before.

HME: When it comes to home infusion, what are some key tenets to achieve good outcomes.

Bondi: Hand washing is crucial. We obviously emphasize infection control and proper hand washing, and from the very beginning that is something the clinical liaisons are demonstrating to the patient, making sure they have a clean environment, making sure that they are hand washing, that anybody that comes in contact with their central line is making sure they are practicing clean techniques as much as possible. We emphasize how important it is to prevent an infection so they don't wind up back in the hospital.

HME: Are patients receptive to education?

Bondi: Absolutely. The more education that somebody receives the better they do. Just meeting the clinical liaison in the hospital in my opinion, it eases fears of the patient because they really have no idea what to expect transitioning to the home.