AHA Honors 2 NAPH Members for Strides in Quality, Palliative Care - July 19, 2011

The American Hospital Association (AHA) recently honored two NAPH member hospitals - Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Fla., for quality and Cook County's John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital in Illinois for palliative care. Memorial Regional earned the 2011 AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize for its culture of quality and efforts to achieve the Institute of Medicine's six quality aims. The hospital was elected to receive the $75,000 prize by a multidisciplinary committee of health care quality and patient safety experts. It is being honored for its work on access to care for all community members and on patient- and family-centered care as a model for other hospitals to follow. The efforts to ensure patients and families are included in care decisions reflect the hospital’s commitment to the individuals and community it serves. Memorial Regional’s emphasis on engaging staff is an integral part of delivering excellent patient care and has led to positive quality outcomes. The hospital also is working to cut readmissions, with three people calling patients post-discharge, including the medical director, whose call focuses on symptoms and other medical triage.

John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital’s Palliative Care program, meanwhile, received the AHA’s Circle of Life Citation of Honor. This is the 12th year for the Circle of Life Award, which celebrates programs across the nation that made great strides in palliative and end-of-life care. The AHA praised Stroger for making faster and deeper inroads in improving patients’ end-of-life experience, including demonstrating a higher rate of patients with hospice enrollment. Patients referred for palliative care at Stroger are met with a care team that stays with them through the hospital stay, as well as in outpatient clinics, hospice and even their own homes. The program sees more than 700 patients each year and treats a large immigrant community and has become skilled in working with those with other cultures and languages. According to Stroger, many patients referred to the program rarely saw a doctor before their life-limiting diagnosis, so the team goes to great lengths to establish a relationship and help patients through the medical, emotional and practical issues of serious illness. The hospital’s program also has developed a staff morale model for other palliative care and hospice teams, which includes monthly reflective reading and discussion sessions. Other hospital employees contribute to the program by participating in weekly lunch sessions where they knit and crochet comfort shawls for patients with serious illness.