Bolton Landing, N.Y. – June 25, 2009 – The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) has awarded its ninth annual Pinnacle Award for Quality and Patient Safety to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Winthrop-University Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital at Amsterdam, and Stony Brook University Medical Center for their efforts in developing and implementing initiatives to improve care in each facility.
Caption: Dr. Eliot Lazar, Vice President of Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer, NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, and Chief Quality Officer, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (right), accepts Pinnacle Award on behalf of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.
HANYS created the Pinnacle Award for Quality Improvement in 2001 to recognize member hospitals and health care systems that significantly improve the health and safety of their patients. The program recognizes and encourages broad dissemination of successful quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.
In the Mult-Entity or System Award, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City was honored for its effort to promote a culture of safety. The Hospital implemented “Patient Safety Fridays: A Method for Advancing a Culture of Safety,” across its five campuses, where each Friday, up to 1,000 members of the entire management staff convene at each site for a one-hour session on one clinical and one environment of care topic. Through this process, the organization addressed 65 environments of care and 100 clinical measures throughout the year. Major improvements have achieved in areas such as: hand hygiene compliance, which increased from 70% to 96%; medication reconciliation compliance, which improved from 76% to 100%; and patient verification compliance, which improved from 78% to 100%.
Winthrop-UniversityHospital received the Large Hospital Award for its program “Changing the Prescribing Culture through Systematic Processes,” which implemented an extensive computerized provider order entry (CPOE) system that improved the medical management practice. To date, patient harm from medication variance decreased from 6% to less than 1%, telephone orders dropped from 14% to less than 1%, inappropriate proton pump inhibitors decreased by 55%, surgical care improvement project antibiotic measures increased to 100%, and venous thromboembolism prophylaxis increased from 74% to 100%.
St. Mary’s Hospital at Amsterdam received the Pinnacle Award in the Unit-Based or Small Organization Category. The hospital’s “ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction Alert,” project followed the example of the goal of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) “door-to-balloon” time core measure to ensure that patients receive treatment in the cardiac catheterization laboratory (cath lab) in less than 90 minutes from their arrival in the emergency department. Currently, there is no corresponding CMS standard for those same patients presenting to small, rural, or non-cath lab hospitals. St. Mary’s Hospital took on that challenge. Working in conjunction with Schenectady Cardiology Associates, Ellis Hospital’s cath lab, and local emergency response systems, St. Mary’s achieved a 25% reduction in door-to-balloon time, and a mean door-to-balloon time of 102.1 minutes, with 70% of the patients below 90 minutes since April 2008.
In the Unit or Division-Based category, Stony Brook University Medical Center was awarded for its “Cardiac Care Unit High Reliability/Exemplary Clinical Unit,” program. Working under the hypothesis that unreliable processes contribute to poor outcomes and operational inefficiencies affecting safety, capacity, flow, access, mortality, finance, and other key metrics, a team at Stony Brook University Medical Center researched and identified characteristics of highly reliable organizations and exemplary care. The initiative resulted in a 20% reduction in mortality, with no central line-associated catheter infections in two years; no falls in one year; no medication error in six months; and corresponding reductions in specimen errors, restraint use, pressure ulcers, and other indicators.
HANYS President Daniel Sisto said: “New York’s hospitals and health care providers are continually striving to provide the highest quality of care for their patients, and we are proud to recognize their efforts. This year’s awardees were selected by a panel of national experts in quality improvement and patient safety judges all entries, looking at such factors as outcomes, cost feasibility, and relevance for other organizations.”
The awards were presented Wednesday, June 24 at HANYS’ 41st Annual Membership Conference in Lake George.
HANYS, the only statewide hospital and continuing care association in New York State, represents more than 550 non-profit and public hospitals, nursing homes, home care agencies, and other health care organizations.
For more information:
Rana Huber
(518) 431-7762
