CAPH/SNI
Annual Management Excellence Award Winners
2006
TOP HONORS
Process Improvement: Contra Costa Regional Medical Center
First Annual Quality Improvement Leadership Award Sponsored by Kaiser Permanaente
In 2006, for the first time, one MEA winner has been selected to receive a new Quality Improvement Leadership Award, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente. This award recognizes a CAPH member hospital that not only made significant quality gains in its own institution, but took on a major leadership role to show the way for other healthcare providers. The award signifies a key principle of the Kaiser Permanente-CAPH partnership, now in its fourth year, of sharing strategies and resources to improve access to quality care and enhance efficiency.
Contra Costa Regional Medical Center System Redesign
A multidisciplinary team redesigned care processes across the hospital’s system, based on the team’s own model of patient-centered care. Methodologies that enabled this transformation include best practices, non-hierarchical multidisciplinary teams, collaborative learning with other organizations, and rapid cycle improvements. Results after 18 months have included a 21 percent drop in mortality, and designation as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s ninth 100,000 Lives Campaign Mentor Hospital for medication reconciliation. A good part of the change management and process improvement education that enabled Contra Costa’s system redesign was achieved through CCRMC’s regular utilization of Kaiser Permanente/SNI IHI Scholarships, as well as Kaiser Permanente’s own training programs that it extends to CAPH members.
Contact: William Walker, MD, Health Services Director, (925) 957-5410
Clinical Quality Improvement: Arrowhead Regional Medical Center
Wound Care in the Acute Patient Setting
A multidisciplinary team implemented numerous evidence-based improvements to the process of pressure ulcer care, leading to reductions in both prevalence, from 21 percent to 13 percent, and incidence, from 8 percent to 3 percent, over a nine-month comparison period. The project is notable for the number of changes implemented to achieve positive results: establishment of a Wound Care Resource Team, purchase of new products and equipment, new staff education modules, revised documentation, and regular ongoing audits of the program.
Contact: Judith McCurdy, Associate Hospital Administrator: (909) 580-6120
Improvements in Chronic Disease Mangement: San Mateo Medical Center
Innovative Cell Phone Use to Reduce Pediatric Asthma Complications
New cell-phone software provided to 30 high-risk child and adolescent asthma patients allowed them (or parents for the younger children) to report self-management data and get immediate advice on next steps, up to and including a return phone call for coaching when their numbers enter a “red zone.” Data is interfaced into the program’s DocSite disease registry for population management and for clinical use during office visits. In the nine months after the program started, the 30 participants had zero ED visits, compared with three ED visits during the year prior to the program’s initiation.
Contact: Sang-ick Chang, MD, Chief Operating Officer, (650) 573-2327
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Process Improvement: Arrowhead Regional Medical Center
Formation of Rapid Medical Evaluation and Treatment in the Emergency Department
Process change and physical plant redesign led to operational efficiencies over the period from September 2005 to July/August 2006. Despite an 11 percent increase in the number of ED visits, the percentage of patients seen in under two hours increased from 73 percent to 81 percent. Average wait time to see a physician decreased 20 percent during the same period.
Contact: Judith McCurdy, Associate Hospital Administrator, (909) 580-6120
Improvements in Chronic Disease Mangement: Alameda County Medical Center
Asthma Lounge
A multidisciplinary team developed protocols to quickly route ED triage patients with signs and symptoms of asthma and COPD to a new Asthma Lounge, where around-the-clock dedicated staff utilize breath-activated analyzers, lounge chairs (instead of beds or gurneys), and patient education materials to improve patient care outcomes. ACMC staff report that this new process and program led to the following results: fewer required respiratory treatments (related to decreased wait time prior to treatment), fewer return ED visits for the patients served, and improved patient satisfaction.
Contact: Jeanette Cotanche, Chief Quality Officer, (510) 437-4943
Addressing Health Care Disparities: Ventura County Medical Center
Opening of Rural Hospital
In 2005, the County of Ventura purchased Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, which had closed in 2003, and reopened the facility in July 2006, under the leadership and management of Ventura County Medical Center. This effort re-establishes basic emergency, surgical, orthopedic, medical, critical care, and obstetrical inpatient services to the largely rural, agricultural communities of Santa Paula, Filmore and Piru. With a population of approximately 42,000, the residents of this part of Ventura County have a median income of $41,000, with nearly 27 percent of residents living below the federal poverty line; 70 percent of the population is Hispanic, and the median age is 30.
Contact: Cyndie Cole, Director of Nursing, (805) 652-6293
2006 Language Access Technology Leadership Awards
The member hospitals of CAPH have shown national leadership in applying new technologies to improve language access, improving both the quality of health care in California and the implementation of patient-focused care in spite of language barriers between patient and provider. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center has led the way with its comprehensive telephone-based interpreter call center; recent developments among other public hospitals include three groundbreaking programs: Videoconferencing Medical Interpretation, Remote Video-Voice Medical Interpretation, and the Health Care Interpreter Network. The systems involved in this important work deserve special recognition for their leadership.
Alameda County Medical Center
Contra Costa Regional Medical Center
Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center
Riverside County Regional Medical Center
San Francisco General Hospital
San Joaquin General Hospital
San Mateo Medical Center
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS!