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 The IHA Institute for Innovations in Care and
Quality’s seventh annual Quality Excellence Achievement Awards were
presented during the IHA’s Leadership Summit on Sept. 13 in Lombard.
The IHA recognized one hospital or health system in five separate
categories. In the community partnership category, Memorial was
recognized for its project, “Integration of Behavioral Health Staff
Improves Patient Outcomes 74 Percent and Contributes to 13 Percent
Neighborhood Crime Reduction.”
To improve access to behavioral healthcare and appropriate
assessments in the nearby Enos Park neighborhood, the health system
embedded behavioral health staff into its primary care clinics,
local schools and community partner clinics, leading to a 13 percent
reduction in police calls to the neighborhood, among other
accomplishments.
"This recognition from the Illinois Hospital Association is
particularly noteworthy because this project exemplifies the
importance of building integrative partnerships across our community
as Memorial fulfills its mission to improve the health of the people
and communities it serves," said Todd Roberts, vice president of
quality and safety and chief quality officer for Memorial Health
System.
In July 2016, Memorial Medical Center, the flagship hospital of
Memorial Health System, was the first Illinois hospital to receive the American
Hospital Association’s top national honor for quality and safety, the
AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize.
With this year’s IHA award, Memorial has received a total of five
IHA quality awards.
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In 2016, Memorial Medical Center was recognized in two
categories. The first project reduced the average time for a consult by 86
percent, lowering the patients' length of stay to 5.4 days from 13.5 days and
reducing the readmission rate for those patients by 80 percent. The second
project reduced the length of stay for chest pain patients in the emergency
department to 8.8 hours from 14.6 hours, a 40-percent reduction.
In 2014, Memorial Medical Center received the top honor in the urban hospital
category for a project that reduced the number of red blood cell transfusions by
nearly a third, which sped treatment delivery, decreased adverse transfusion
reactions and produced a $2.8 million cost savings.
In 2013, Memorial Health System received the top quality award in the healthcare
system category for work directed at reducing hospital-acquired pressure ulcers.
Fifty-nine healthcare quality improvement projects were submitted by hospitals
and health systems in Illinois. Entries were judged by a blind review panel of
more than 20 independent quality experts from throughout the United States.
[Memorial Health Systems]
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