Boise – Qualis Health presented the 2006 Award of Excellence in Healthcare Quality today, recognizing six outstanding healthcare providers in Idaho. The organizations received award plaques during a luncheon ceremony at the 8th Annual Idaho Conference on Healthcare Quality Improvement, which was held April 17 in Boise.
Jonathan Sugarman, MD, MPH, president and CEO of Qualis Health, made the formal presentation of this year’s awards. Qualis Health is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare delivery and health outcomes. The awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to healthcare through innovative, measurable improvements in care.
The awards are given in several categories including large urban hospitals, rural hospitals, nursing homes, physicians’ offices, home health agencies, and outstanding use of information technology.
Idaho healthcare providers submitted nominations for the awards in February and early March. The nominations were evaluated by a group of seven judges, including representatives of healthcare professional groups and associations. Each nomination was independently scored on a 100-point scale.
“The outstanding field of candidates this year made it a great challenge for our panelists to select the winners. The number of amazing applicants is a clear sign of the impressive efforts of so many in Idaho to improving quality and affordability in healthcare,” said Sugarman.
The Idaho 2006 Awards of Excellence were given for the following healthcare improvement projects:
Large Urban Hospital: Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center (Idaho Falls) for reducing the occurrence of Methicillin Resistant Staph Aureus (MRSA – a staph infection resistant to the normal treatment) in the hospital by initiating an active surveillance and prevention program.
Rural Hospital: Walter Knox Memorial Hospital (Emmett) for a successful effort to improve patient and staff satisfaction through the initiation of a staff customer service program.
Nursing Home: Caribou Memorial Living Center (Soda Springs) for outstanding work in the prevention of pressure ulcers. Caribou Memorial Living Center went from a 33.3 percent pressure ulcer rate to a zero percent rate and maintained it for the past five calendar quarters.
Physicians Office/Clinic: Idaho Physicians Clinic (Boise) for successfully increasing the availability to specialty physician services through active recruitment in Bingham County and avoiding costly hospitalizations.
Home Health: St. Joseph Regional Medical Center Home Health (Lewiston) for a significant reduction in their Acute Care Hospitalization rate.
Outstanding use of information technology to improve care: Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center (Boise) for reducing the incidence of urinary tract infections (UTI) by using computer software to identify high risk patients.
Honorable mention was given to Mercy Medical Center for its work in improving hand hygiene to reduce the spread of infection and their improvement in the rate of blood culture test prior to antibiotics for patients with community acquired pneumonia.
Qualis Health also recognized hospitals that received a 100 percent validation score for submitting data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Providers participating in CMS’s quality improvement initiatives must submit data relating to heart attacks, pneumonia, heart failure and surgical improvement. The score that they receive reflects a hospital’s ability to collect data according to CMS’s Manual for National Hospital Quality Measures specifications. A score of 100 percent denotes reliably accurate data submissions.
Qualis Health recognizes the following hospitals for the major effort required to receive a 100 percent validation score:
St. Joseph Regional Medial Center – First quarter 2006
Northwest Specialty Hospital – First quarter 2006
Benewah Community Hospital – First quarter 2006
Mountain View Hospital – First and second quarters 2006
