Case Study: St. Luke’s Hospital achieves zero Joint Commission care‑plan citations and improved nursing care‑plan compliance with Cerner’s Interdisciplinary Plan of Care (IPOC)

St. Luke’s Hospital improves nursing care plan compliance

St. Luke’s Hospital, an acute care facility serving the St. Louis area, needed to make nursing care plans meaningful, interdisciplinary and easy for staff to use while also addressing compliance gaps with The Joint Commission. Leadership set a clear vision to standardize workflow in the EHR and improve documentation so care plans would support nurses’ critical thinking rather than be seen as just another task.

The hospital implemented Cerner’s Interdisciplinary Plan of Care (IPOC), assigned four focused care plans per inpatient, used IPOC target dates to monitor outcomes, and rolled out a rigorous training program for more than 600 nurses plus regular mock surveys and daily safety rounds. The initiative led to zero care-plan citations during the 2017 Joint Commission survey and raised care-plan compliance from about 75% to over 83%, with the new processes retained as ongoing practice.

St. Luke’s Hospital

Diane Ray

Senior Vice President, Network Chief Nursing Officer, and Chief Operating Officer