CARE 2000 program refocuses on patients at Mercy in San Diego.

Two patient floors are now up and running with Mercy Hospital and Medical Center's CARE 2000 plan for restructuring and decentralizing patient care, and patient satisfaction has already made measurable leaps forward. The new management plan at the San Diego hospital increases nursing time with patients, moves formerly centralized services right onto the patient floor, decreases the number of caregivers a patient must see and makes "care partners" of ancillary staffers. Also, bedside information systems design goes hand-in-glove with new management concepts that are working well.