Silicon Valley philanthropist John A. Sobrato and his family have donated $5 million to the VMC Foundation toward the development of the new Santa Clara Valley Medical Center hospital building. The gift, which is the largest ever made to the VMC Foundation, is a challenge grant that could double in size through matching by the foundation. The grant will go toward equipment and medical technology for the new building, which will house adult intensive care and acute care units, as well as the Spinal Cord and Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation Center. Scheduled to open in 2013, the new building will be dedicated as the John A. and Susan Sobrato Pavilion.

A recent Care Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C., brought together officials from the Obama administration and representatives from across the health care industry to explore innovative ways to make health care affordable and effective. Co-hosted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, the West Wireless Health Institute and Health Affairs, the summit covered topics such as primary care delivery, chronic disease care delivery and cancer care. Jennifer DeCubellis, who serves as area director for Hennepin Health, participated in the summit, taking part in a discussion on rapid fire innovation pitches. Hennepin Health is a proposed Medicaid demonstration project to form an integrated health care delivery network that blends medical, behavioral health and social services in a patient-centered care model.

The Health Care District of Palm Beach County is launching a new pilot program that will provide health care services for Palm Beach County residents who are currently not served by other health coverage programs. The program will benefit many of the recently uninsured who cannot afford to continue to pay for their health insurance coverage, yet have too many assets to qualify for other health insurance programs. The initiative will cost approximately $1 million, which will come from Health Care District reserves, and will allow for 16,666 uninsured visits at a cost of $60 per medical visit. According to Benjamin Frank, Esq., chair of the district’s board of commissioners, “This new initiative, in collaboration with our community partners, is right in line with the Health Care District’s mission to ensure the delivery of quality health care services for Palm Beach County residents.”

Dana Carroll, Ph.D., a University of Utah professor of biochemistry, has been chosen to receive the 2012 Edward Novitski Prize from the Genetics Society of America. The award, which is given for creativity and intellectual ingenuity in solving significant problems in genetics research, recognizes Carroll’s discovery of a method that improves the efficiency of gene targeting. Carroll realized that proteins called zinc finger nucleases could be used to break DNA at specific points in a sequence, exponentially increasing the success rate of gene targeting. His work allows researchers to introduce engineered changes in genes of interest into living experimental organisms for the first time, and has many potential uses in research and medicine.

Broward Health Community Health Services (BHCHS) honored 44 Broward Health primary care practitioners for their unwavering commitment and dedication to serving the uninsured and underinsured in Broward County. The honor coincides with National Medical Group Practice Week, which was created by the Medical Group Management Association to advance awareness of the benefits of group practices to patients, communities and physicians, and to recognize leaders of these organizations. Noting the honorees’ achievements in medicine, as well as the time and talent they invest in the community, John Berges, M.D., medical director of BHCHS said, “Within our network of community- and school-based health centers, our community has access to quality care, plus value-added primary care practitioners.”

MetroHealth Medical Center has joined with two other Cleveland hospital systems – the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals Case Medical Center – to form a research consortium that will participate in the National Heart Failure Clinical Research Network. The consortium has received an initial, 7-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to work on multiple, networkwide, randomized clinical trials to test new treatment approaches for heart failure. In addition to providing patients with more opportunities to participate in new research, the collaboration will yield more comprehensive data from diverse patient populations, which will lead to better treatment options for heart failure patients.

Contra Costa Health Services has launched a Stroke System, which provides a coordinated 911 emergency response that links patients to trained emergency medical providers who identify and transport stroke victims to designated primary stroke certified hospitals within 4 hours. As only the 11th jurisdiction in California to establish this type of network, Contra Costa hopes to raise the standard of care for strokes, reduce the damage caused by strokes and save lives. The Stroke System also promotes community stroke education and prevention.

Broward Health North Broward Medical Center has appointed Andre Landau, MD, FACC, as medical director of interventional cardiology. Landau is certified by the American Board of Cardiology, has authored several cardiovascular publications and was a fellow of the Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutic Trials Unit at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Landau received his medical degree from the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School in Johannesburg, South Africa. He completed his residency both at Baragwanath Hospital in South Africa and the State University of New York Health Science Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he was chief resident. Landau is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and American College of Physicians. He is a member of the American Medical Association, American Society of Internal Medicine, Florida Society of Internal Medicine and South African Aerospace Medical Society.

The UC Center for Health Quality and Innovation has awarded UC Health Fellowships to 13 recipients from six UC campuses. The yearlong fellowships will support projects that improve the quality and value of care provided by UC Health System. The projects’ goals include reducing hospital readmissions, decreasing emergency room wait times and optimizing antibiotic use in health care facilities. Recipients’ institutions will receive a $50,000 award that will support a portion of the salary and benefits associated with the time recipients spend on their projects. Fellows will build leadership skills, receive mentorship from their campuses and meet with the other fellows and leadership from UC medical center campuses.

Contra Costa Regional Medical Center (CCRMC) received the Quality Leaders Top Honor award for its perinatal program, "Vaginal Birth after Cesarean (VBAC) Improvement Project." The award, which was given by the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems and its quality improvement affiliate, the California Health Care Safety Net Institute, recognizes a public hospital program that best represents an innovative approach to improving health care. CCRMC’s VBAC program enables more women who have had a cesarean delivery avoid the surgery with their next pregnancy through a set of interventions – including performing an emergency C-section – that ensure staff can respond quickly to any complications that might occur during labor or delivery. As of September 2011, CCRMC averaged a nearly 90 percent vaginal delivery success rate for VBAC patients, attained with no long-term complications to patients or their babies.

Nassau University Medical Center has launched a 320 slice coronary computed tomography (CT) angiography, which is used for heart vessel imaging. Nassau University Medical Center is the first hospital in Nassau County to introduce this state-of-the-art technology – most scanners currently use 64 detector imaging. The technology – made possible through a joint venture between NuHealth and the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System – will provide clearer images with less radiation exposure. For patients, this means more reliable diagnoses with less risk.

Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute at Memorial Regional Hospital has received a three-star rating – the highest available – from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The comprehensive rating system compares the quality of cardiac surgery among hospitals across the country. Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute’s three-star rating places it among the top 14 percent of programs participating in the survey. With quality and safety as its top priorities, Memorial Cardiac and Vascular Institute is dedicated to the prevention, detection and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

The University of Kansas Hospital has been named a co-winner of the National Research Corporation’s (NRC) Consumer Choice Award for 2011. The award is based on a survey in which consumers rate hospitals based upon doctors, nurses, image/reputation and overall quality. NRC believes in the importance of consumers’ opinions, and notes that as consumers become increasingly proactive in their health care decisions, their perceptions and experiences will help drive better quality care.

Margarita M. Baggett, M.S.N., R.N., chief nursing officer for UC San Diego Health System, has received Nursing Management’s 2011 Visionary Leader award. The award is given to a nurse leader who “views nursing as both art and science by promoting caring and competence as the link between science and humanity.” Baggett is dedicated to building initiatives around clear structures, processes and outcomes, and helping all levels of staff reach their hopes, dreams and aspirations. With the foundation of these two concepts, Baggett has accomplished numerous goals since joining UC San Diego Health System in 2006. Her successes include developing and implementing a system of monthly key-indicator tracking at the unit, division and overall nursing levels, and helping to develop the professional role of the nurse.

Two NAPH members have been designated 2011 “Top Hospitals” by the Leapfrog Group. The University of California (UC) San Diego Health System and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute were included on the Leapfrog Group’s list, which recognizes hospitals that deliver the highest quality care by preventing medical errors, reducing mortality for high-risk procedures and reducing readmissions for patients being treated for conditions such as pneumonia and heart attack. The Leapfrog Hospital Survey focuses on three areas of hospital care: how patients fare, resources used to care for patients, and management practices that promote safety and quality.

NuHealth/Nassau University Medical Center has received the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council’s 2011 Excellence in Patient Safety Award for its quality improvement initiative, “Developing a Low-Cost Solution to a High-Risk Problem: Transforming the Process of Care to Reduce Central Line–Associated Blood Stream Infections.” The award is given to one hospital each year for distinguished achievements in patient safety and quality improvement, including impact on patient care and safety, innovation, adherence to quality improvement principles and methodologies, use of relevant process and outcome measures through the improvement process, sustainability, evidence of cost-consciousness, and demonstration of effective use of human and material resources.

Barbara Andersen, Ph.D., a researcher at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -- Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, has received $1.6 million from the National Cancer Institute to provide biobehavioral intervention training for health care professionals, including psychologists, mental health nurses, and clinical social workers. The intervention, which Anderson and colleagues developed after more than a decade’s worth of research, is designed to help cancer patients cope with the stresses of diagnosis and treatment and includes components such as stress reduction, problem solving, improving one’s diet, and increasing physical activity. The intervention has been shown to reduce breast cancer patients’ emotional distress, improve behaviors such as maintaining a healthy diet and adhering to chemotherapy, and boost health and immunity. Long-term follow-up data has shown a reduced risk for recurrence and death from breast cancer.