H E A LT H CA R E
05
STRUCTURAL
EMPOWERMENT
Nita Parker has been a nurse for 33 years, and after all these years she is still looking for
better ways to do things. When the UNC Center for Transplant Care found that some of
their patients’ lengths of stay were greater than the national average length of stay, Nita
spearheaded a team to find out why.
Nita found that for adult liver transplant patients, the national average was 8.2 days, and
at that time the average length of stay (ALOS) at UNCH was 11.3 days. After in-depth
data collection and analysis, the Transplant Team created changes that improved patient
care and satisfaction and reduced length of stay. As a result, the Center for Transplant
Care ALOS for adult liver transplant patients with no complications has now been reduced
to 8 days or less.