Hospitals across Ascension Health continue to make progress in our system-wide efforts to reduce Hospital Acquired Conditions (HACs) through our participation as a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Partnership for Patients Hospital Engagement Network (HEN).
The HEN effort has two important goals: reducing hospital-acquired infections by 40 percent and reducing readmissions by 20 percent. Ascension Health is seeking to improve patient safety in 10 Core Focus Areas, including Pressure Ulcers, Adverse Drug Events, Injuries from Falls, and seven other HACs. Now in our second year as a HEN, Ascension Health has been recognized by CMS for our hospitals’ efforts to date to make patient care safer.
One Health Ministry in particular is worthy of special note. St. Vincent’s Health System in Birmingham, Ala., Ascension Health’s fifth-largest Health Ministry, is unique within Ascension Health because its four hospitals are demonstrating exceptional results in each and every one of the Core Focus Areas that Ascension is measuring.
Reducing Hospital Acquired Conditions at St. Vincent’s Health System in Alabama
The results at St. Vincent’s Health System are impressive. Each hospital within St. Vincent’s is seeing at least a 20 percent reduction from its 2010 baseline in three of the ten Core Focus Areas. All four St. Vincent’s hospitals have seen a drop of at least 20 percent in pressure ulcers. In addition:
- For 409-bed St. Vincent’s Birmingham hospital, reductions also have been seen in Venous Thromboembolism (VTEs) and Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP)
- Forty-bed St. Vincent’s St. Clair’s drops have been in Falls and Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections (CLABSI)
- At 328-bed St. Vincent’s East, decreases were seen in VAP and Falls
- Forty-bed St. Vincent’s Blount’s decreases have been in Adverse Drug Events and Readmissions.
The four hospitals also have been recognized for sustaining high performance above their benchmarks in other Core Focus Areas:
- St. Vincent’s Birmingham: Adverse Drug Events, Obstetrical Adverse Events, Surgical Site Infections and CLABSI
- St. Vincent’s St. Clair: VAP
- St. Vincent’s East: Adverse Drug Events, Obstetrical Adverse Events, VTE
- St. Vincent’s Blount: VTE, VAP and Falls
St. Vincent’s achieved its results thanks to a team effort that requires the commitment of frontline caregivers, managers and senior leadership, all focused on the patient experience and a culture of High Reliability.
For several years, the Health Ministry has had a Strategic Annual Priority focused on High Reliability, which is integrated into leaders' and associates' personal goals and measured annually during performance reviews. Daily Leadership huddles focus on safety, patient experience and communications.
“We must work together in order to achieve our goals,” says Emily Davis, RN, MSN, Clinical Nurse Leader in Oncology at St. Vincent’s Birmingham. “We concurrently review patients each day to improve our quality of care through collaborative efforts. When there is a potential issue identified, the nursing staff as well as physicians are notified to make necessary changes. We celebrate our results as a team and strive to continually improve the care provided to our patients.”
St. Vincent’s President and CEO John O’Neil emphasizes that it’s all about aligned priorities and servant leadership at all levels of the organization.
“Leadership is all about relationships,” John says. “We believe strongly in servant leadership – serving the needs of our patients, our associates and our physicians.”
And if something is preventing caregivers from achieving their goals, then John expects to hear about it. “We want to be the measurably best in everything we do. Tell me why we can’t be the best in everything we do. What do we need to do to help you?”
“Healthcare can be very demanding and busy,” Emily notes. “It is beneficial when processes are implemented so that specific measures are addressed by care providers. When all team members are aware of the expectations, collaboration becomes much easier, [which] is beneficial for the patient and the entire team.”
