Taylorville Memorial Hospital issued the following announcement on Sept. 25.
A workplace safety initiative at Taylorville Memorial Hospital received top honors in the outstanding achievement category from the Illinois Health and Hospital Association (IHA) today.
Memorial Health System, the parent organization of Taylorville Memorial Hospital, was presented with the award at the IHA Leadership Summit in Lombard. It was one of four quality excellence achievement awards given to Illinois healthcare organizations.
The award recognizes the health system’s workplace safety initiative titled “Lean Six Sigma Project to Manage Aggressive Behavior in the ED Reduces Need for Security Staff Intervention by 66 Percent.” The initiative will be rolled out to other hospitals in the nonprofit health system.
This is the sixth award that Memorial Health System has received from the statewide association in six years.
The workplace safety initiative was designed to provide front-line staff with additional support to manage individuals with aggressive behavior more effectively. As a result, security calls for disruptive behavior dropped to 2.5 calls per 1,000 patient visits to the emergency department from 7.4 calls.
A national panel of quality experts judged the 91 projects that were submitted by 57 hospitals and health systems in Illinois.
“This award recognizes our dedication to living a culture of safety, not only in delivering great patient care but also in protecting our visitors, physicians and staff from harm,” said Todd Roberts, vice president of quality and safety and chief quality officer for Memorial Health System. “Excellence in all aspects of quality and safety is core to our vision of being a national leader in healthcare.”
Other winners include AMITA Health in Arlington Heights, behavioral health category; Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton and Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, partnership category; and Jersey Community Hospital in Jerseyville, small and rural category.
In 2017, Memorial Health System was recognized for a project 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.
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.
In July 2016, Memorial Medical Center was the first Illinois hospital to receive the American Hospital Association’s top national honor for quality and safety, the Quest for Quality Prize.
Original source can be found here.
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