February 18, 2019
On February 7th, the PURC Executive Team – prostate cancer clinical experts, data abstractors, patient advocates and practice administrators – convened at Independence Live in Philadelphia to discuss the current progress and future directions of the collaborative. PURC is a prostate cancer quality improvement initiative that brings urology practices together in a physician-led, data-sharing and improvement collaborative. Headlining the meeting was an update from the newly established Opioid Working Group, which focuses on improving opioid stewardship for prostatectomy patients. Dr. Daniel Lee and Dr. Ruchika Talwar from Penn Urology shared promising early results from their new initiative to reduce excess narcotic use in prostatectomy and nephrectomy surgery discharges. In order to do so, Penn urologists have implemented a pain management pathway that initially emphasizes prescribing alternative pain medications with escalation protocols to opioids if pain cannot be controlled. The Opioid Working Group hopes to pilot this pathway at additional PURC practices. In the meantime, the Opioid Working Group is developing variables and measures to understand opioid prescribing patterns across PURC practices.
Dr. Serge Ginzburg, PURC physician champion from Einstein Healthcare Network, shared his technique to perform a transperineal prostate biopsy, which research suggests significantly reduces the chance of infections regardless of whether or not an antibiotic is prescribed prior to the biopsy. The Biopsy Working Group will continue to monitor infection rates associated with this technique.
PURC is pleased to announce that over 10,000 patients have now been entered into its data registry. As the dataset grows, PURC improves its position for research, grants, and clinical trials.
November 30, 2018
On November 13, HCIF and Capital BlueCross hosted the third annual half-day conference entitled, “Improving Patient Safety through the Leapfrog Survey and Regional Collaboration.” The conference gathered quality and safety leaders from hospitals across Central Pennsylvania to learn about innovative approaches to central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI) prevention and management of risks and hazards. These topics had been identified as opportunities for improvement and shared learning by analyzing Leapfrog Hospital Survey scorecard results. The conference highlighted how local hospitals are leveraging their Leapfrog Survey results to drive quality improvement.
Featured speakers included Maureen Ann Frye, Director of the Center for Patient Safety and Healthcare Quality at Abington Jefferson Health and Dr. Valeria Fabre, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins. Ms. Frye presented on how hospitals can identify and mitigate risks and hazards through a framework of awareness, accountability, ability, and action. By sharing tools and strategies employed at Abington Jefferson Health, Ms. Frye also focused on how to integrate the assessment of risks and hazards with a high reliability strategy. Dr. Fabre’s presentation described strategies implemented at Johns Hopkins intended to achieve their goal of zero CLABSI. Dr. Fabre also showcased Johns Hopkins’ innovative approach to reduce unnecessary blood cultures. Reaction panels comprising of representatives from local, high-performing hospitals who shared additional quality improvement strategies followed both presentations.
HCIF and Capital BlueCross will next host a webinar in the spring to present analyses of 2018 Leapfrog Hospital Survey scorecard data.
November 6, 2018
The Health Care Improvement Foundation (HCIF) has hosted the Delaware Valley Patient Safety and Quality Award for the past sixteen years. This program is one of many ways in which HCIF promotes best practices in health care patient safety and quality throughout the region.
The top 10 winners for this year’s award program demonstrated fulfillment of the award’s evaluation criteria, which includes significant and sustained improvement in quality or patient safety; innovation; leadership and organizational commitment to improvement; a multidisciplinary approach; and the potential for replication in other healthcare organizations.
We are pleased to announce this year’s first place goes to Einstein Medical Center Montgomery for their initiative, “Preventing Opioid-Induced Ventilatory Impairment (OIVI) in Medical Surgical Patients.” Second place goes to Penn Medicine for their initiative, “ICU Liberation: Executing the ‘ABCDEF’ Bundle Daily.” Third place goes to Abington Hospital – Jefferson Health for their initiative, “Reducing Postoperative Complications: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Early and Consistent Ambulation.”
Please click here to watch the videos for these three winning initiatives.
Einstein Medical Center Montgomery Team with HCIF President
Pictured: Tom Hennessy, Elicia Jackson, Kate Flynn, Scott Alcott, Tom Cleary, Monica Nash, AnnMarie Papa, Amber Delp
Penn Medicine Team with HCIF President
Pictured: Margarete Pierce, Paul Junker, Steve Gudowski, Barry Fuchs, MD, Juliane Jablonski, Kate Flynn, Jessica Gregoire, Venkat Panchanadam
Abington Hospital – Jefferson Health Team with HCIF President
Pictured: Karen Perez, Kelly Laumann, Kate Flynn, Megan Reinhart
The following entries placed in the top ten:
Abington Hospital – Jefferson Health
Using Technology for Follow-Up Radiology Report Recommendations of Lung Nodules
Einstein Medical Center Montgomery
Integrating Positive Blood Culture PCR Testing and Antimicrobial Stewardship Decreases Unnecessary Antibiotic Treatment and Hospital Costs
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Your Choice, Your Voice: Collection of Advance Directive Documentation
Jefferson Health
Engaging Patients and Caregivers during Chemotherapy through Digital Technology
Mercy Catholic Medical Center
Opiate Utilization & Pain Management Reduction from Acute Care to the Community
Pennsylvania Hospital
Early Recovery for Isolated Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) Surgery (ERACS): Initiating an “On Table Extubation” (OTE) program and reducing postoperative length of stay (postop LOS)
Temple University Hospital
Utilizing an Alternative Care Site for Low Acuity Emergency Department Visits
August 15, 2018
The Pennsylvania Health Care Quality Alliance (PHCQA) updated its website, www.PAHealthCareQuality.org, with readmission and mortality data through Q2 2017 for conditions such as heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and stroke. This data, sourced from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, is updated annually each summer. Additionally, PHCQA published HCAHPS patient experience, infection, and emergency department data through Q3 2017. Cancer data sourced from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer has been refreshed for 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 to reflect any new data submissions by cancer centers since March 2018.
July 25, 2018
The 2018 Delaware Valley Patient Safety & Quality Award call for entries officially closed last week on Tuesday, July 17. This year’s award program garnered twenty-nine submissions from ten regional PPC-contributing organizations. Thirty-four review panelists serving as clinical and administrative leaders from area hospitals have begun scoring the submissions based on criteria that looks at an initiative’s efforts in advancing patient care regarding innovation, collaboration, and ease of replication. Come early August, review panelists will have narrowed down the submissions to the top ten and from there the Selection Committee’s eleven members will score the top ten entries to determine the top three winners. Winners will be announced at the Southeast Connect event on November 2, 2018. We encourage those interested in the Delaware Valley Patient Safety & Quality Award program to stop by the website to find the past four year’s top three winners’ submissions and videos highlighting their initiatives.
