Press Release: 2004 Improvement of the Year Award
The Center for Health Policy, Research, and Ethics, in the College of Nursing and Health Science at George Mason University is proud to announce the first annual “Improvement of the Year Award,” presented to Inova Health System, “Operation Stroke” and Centra Health, Lynchburg General Hospital “ICU Infection Control Improvements” at an awards banquet February 2, 2005 at the Marriott International in Falls Church, VA.
After a welcoming by the Dean, Dr. Shirley Travis, the ceremony was marked by a presentation by Ken Kozloff, Vice President of Inova Alexandria Hospital on sources of error and strategies for improving performance in healthcare organizations. Dr. Mark Meiners, Director of The Center for Health Policy, Research, and Ethics spoke regarding the Center’s role in forwarding quality improvement, and Dr. Farrokh Alemi, Assistant Dean of Health Science and founder of the award recognized the winners and recipients of honorable mention.
The “Improvement of the Year Award” celebrates successful improvement efforts in healthcare organizations and ensures that the hard work of improvement teams is appreciated and acknowledged. A number of prestigious awards of this type exist locally and nationally. However, current awards focus on an entire organization’s improvement effort, or are given to participants within one organization. The “Improvement of the Year Award” focuses on project-by-project reviews across organizations. As such, the “Improvement of the Year Award” offers improvement teams a unique opportunity for recognition, not solely within their supporting organization, but among all of the leading healthcare organizations. This award is not intended to reinvent the wheel but to fill in a gap for communication and recognition among health care organizations in the region. In addition to the recognition that the recipients of the award received, the award brings together submitting improvement specialists from various organizations so that they can collaborate. All projects received benchmarked analysis of their practices, comparing their improvement effort to peer institutions in the Center’s national database of more than 200 improvement efforts.
In 2005, the award was supported by Center for Health Policy, Research & Ethics, Century Club of George Mason, Delmarva Foundation, and District of Columbia Association for Healthcare Quality
"Operation Stroke" project at Inova Health System
Inova's Project Stroke |
The Operation Stroke project at Inova Health System in Fairfax VA was
the winner of 2005 Improvement of the Year Award. In order to reduce the
devastating effects of stroke, the Inova Health System and the American
Stroke Association have partnered in a multi-year effort entitled “Operation
Stroke.” The clinical component of the collaboration was designed
to establish a system wide continuum of care for stroke patients that
represented best clinical practices and demonstrated improved patient
outcomes and financial performance in Inova Health System hospitals. The
project reduced morbidity, increased patient satisfaction by 80% and reduced
cost of care. It had widespread impact on the organization. For more information
contact Peggy Cressy at peggy.cressy@inova.com.
"ICU Infection Control Improvements” project at Centra Health
Centra Health Infection Control |
The ICU Infection Control Improvement project at Centra Health, Lynchburg General Hospital in Lynchburg VA was the winner of 2005 Improvement of the Year Award. The goal of this project was to reduce blood stream infections and ventilator associated pneumonia. To do so, standardized procedures were developed for line placement to reduce blood stream infections. Also standardized procedures were developed for bed elevation, patient sedation, and mouth care, and a ventilator bundle was added to reduce time spent on ventilators. The project reduced patients' morbidity, increased patient satisfaction and reduced cost of care. The project had widespread impact on the organization. For more information contact Mary Ann Tate at maryann.tate@centrahealth.com.
Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mention awards were also presented to the following improvement projects:
- “Reducing the nosocomial pressure ulcer rate in transitional care unit patients/residents” – Calvert Memorial Hospital, Prince Frederick, MD. For more information contact Maggie Eller at meller@cmhlink.org.
- “Patient Safety Best Practice: Marking Surgical Sites and Time Outs” – George Washington University Hospital, Washington, D.C. For more information contact Kathy McGuinn at kathy.mcguinn@gwu-hospital.com.
- “High Quality, Cost Effective Health Care: The Heart of the Matter,” – Inova Health System Community Health, Fairfax, VA. For more information contact Gill Abernathy at gill.abnerathy@inova.com.
- “ROARing Ahead: Rehab Outcomes Advancing Recovery” – Inova Health System Physical Therapy Center, Fairfax, VA. For more information contact Margaret Guarino at margaret.guarino@inova.com.
- “Physician Mandated Use of Computer Order Entry” – Mercy Medical Center, Baltimore, MD. For more information contact Scott Spier at sspier@mdmercy.com.
- “Spotlight on Quality” – Prince William Health System, Prince William Hospital, Manassas, VA. For more information contact Elizabeth Hurd at ehurd@pwhs.org.
Recipients of the Honorable Mention
Next Award
The Center for Health Policy, Research, and Ethics plans to continue to honor successful efforts in healthcare quality improvement annually. Plans are also in place to expand this award nationally. For more information about the award or how to apply, contact Jennifer Sinkule, Program Coordinator, at jsinkule@gmu.edu or visit the site for the “Improvement of the Year Award.”
