IPRO Quality Award Winners 2017

Each year IPRO recognizes outstanding performance by healthcare providers and stakeholders throughout New York State with our Quality Awards Program.

We salute the 2017 honorees.

Amy Bowerman, RN

Director of Quality Improvement – VNA of Utica & Oneida County, Director of Patient Services–Senior Network Health, HCA Quality Committee, HCA Sepsis Workgroup Leader

Amy Bowerman has been the driving force behind the creation and implementation of the Home Care Association of New York State’s Adult Sepsis Screening Tool. Through this effort she has demonstrated her ongoing commitment to quality improvement and to sharing best practices with the community.

In collaboration with the Home Care Association of New York State’s Quality Council, Ms. Bowerman was instrumental in the two year development, design, and beta testing of the HCA Adult Sepsis Screening Tool—the first of its kind in the nation.

Ms. Bowerman’s proficiency in both acute and home health care facilitated inclusion of essential assessment, follow-up, and intervention components of the Screening Tool. She led a statewide train-the-trainer webinar for the HCA Adult Sepsis Screening Tool.

IN RECOGNITION OF EXEMPLARY COLLABORATION, PARTNERSHIP AND PATIENT ADVOCACY

CHAT
Conversations: Health and Treatment
A partnership between The Gitenstein Institute for Health Law and Policy at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University; Northwell Health; and communities in the New York metropolitan area.

CHAT Mission: to empower individuals with information about advance care planning, allowing for more open communi­cation with their families and clinicians about patient-centered medical decision-making for them­selves and loved ones, should they be faced with a serious, life-threatening, or end-of-life situation.

The CHAT team partnered with IPRO’s CMS Special Innovation Project “Transforming End of Life Care” team to educate Medicare beneficiaries, families, caregivers and providers in Nassau and Suffolk counties about the importance of advance care planning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IN RECOGNITION OF EXEMPLARY PERFORMANCE, ORGANIZATION-WIDE COMMITMENT TO QUALITY IMPROVEMENT, SHARING OF BEST PRACTICES, PATIENT ENGAGEMENT, AND DEDICATION  TO ENSURING THE CARE THAT ALL INDIVIDUALS RECEIVE AT THE END OF LIFE HONORS THEIR PREFERENCES

MATHER
John T. Mather Memorial Hospital
Working with IPRO on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Special Innovation Project, Trans­forming End of Life Care, John T. Mather Memorial Hospital became the first hospital on Long Island to “go live” with the electronic MOLST registry, and the first healthcare provider on Long Island to signifi­cantly integrate eMOLST in the electronic medical record system.

John T. Mather Hospital’s eMOLST Implementation Project Leader engaged service providers caring for individuals with developmental disabilities to work with IPRO to plan and host a Learning & Action Net­work event titled “Improving Quality and Honoring Preferences for Persons with Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities Near the End of Life: The Role of the MOLST Program.”

The John T. Mather Memorial Hospital eMOLST Implementation team has demonstrated leadership and has engaged individuals across its organization in a project that is the ultimate in patient engagement and that helps to ensure that the care individuals receive at the end of life honors their preferences.

IN RECOGNITION OF ORGANIZATION-WIDE COMMITMENT TO QUALITY AND COMPREHENSIVE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT EFFORTS TARGETING PREVENTION, EARLY RECOGNITION AND PROMPT TREATMENT OF SEPSIS AT THE HOSPITAL AND COMMUNITY LEVEL

Putnam Hospital Center
HEALTHQUEST
Putnam Hospital Center (PHC) has implemented hospital wide protocols, education, training and interventions to support prompt identification and treatment of sepsis across the continuum of care. In addition, the hospital conducts community outreach to provide education and promote public awareness of the signs and symptoms of sepsis and the need to treat sepsis as a medical emergency.

PHC’s sepsis initiatives support IPRO’s coordination of care and sepsis projects conducted under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Quality Innovation Network – Quality Improvement Organization contract. Through a comprehensive effort led by Tyra Thompson, RN, quality management specialist, PHC was successful in transforming clinical practice for sepsis management.

IN RECOGNITION OF THE REGIONAL AID FOR INTERIM NEEDS, INC.’s (R.A.I.N.)ONGOING COLLABORATION WITH IPRO AND ITS COMMITMENT TO THE GOALS OF THE EVERYONE WITH DIABETES COUNTS (EDC) PROGRAM

R.A.I.N.
Regional Aid for Interim Needs, Inc. (R.A.I.N.) is a senior service organization established in 1964 by Beatrice Castiglia Catullo, RN, PhD, honoris causa.

In response to the current staggering diabetes statistics, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched Everyone with Diabetes Counts (EDC) to offer evidence-based diabetes self-management training to individuals with diabetes. The program is designed to improve health outcomes and quality of life among disparate and underserved Medicare populations.

In New York IPRO partnered with community-based organizations, such as R.A.I.N., to provide diabetes self-management education to Medicare beneficiaries living with diabetes.

IN RECOGNITION OF ORGANIZATION-WIDE COMMITMENT TO QUALITY IMPROVEMENT, LEADERSHIP IN SHARING BEST PRACTICES, MOST IMPROVED PERFORMANCE, AND PATIENT ENGAGEMENT.

St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital
St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital is a not-for-profit hospital dedicated to serving the healthcare needs of those in the Hudson Valley. Each year the organization cares for more than 270,000 patients from around the Hudson Valley. With 1,500 employees, the hospital is one of the largest employers in Orange County.

St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital improved its 30-day readmission rate for Medicare Fee-for-Service patients through efforts to improve transitions of care across settings. The hospital’s Population Health Coalition meets quarterly to identify ways to provide educational information to the aging population within its service area. In addition the hospital’s leadership staff hosts monthly meetings with the hospital’s primary referral sources to streamline communication and care coordination across care settings. To support transparency nursing home and home health 30-day readmission data are shared by the hospital with its referral sources at each month’s meeting.

IN RECOGNITION OF EXEMPLARY PARTNERSHIP, COLLABORATION, AND COMMITMENT TO EDUCATING HEALTHCARE CONSUMERS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF ADVANCE CARE PLANNING.

Elder Law Clinic,
Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center
Aging and Longevity Law Institute
In support of IPRO’s Transforming End of Life Care initiative, the Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center Aging and Longevity Law Institute participated in educational programs on end of life care provided to seniors at several Section 8 housing communities in Suffolk County. These programs offered legal counsel to an underserved population of seniors as they worked on completing advance care planning documents. Many of the seniors who participated in these comprehensive educational programs had previously expressed concerns about how they would be able to ensure that their end of life wishes would be honored in an environment of family conflict or because of their difficulty in identifying a health care proxy.

In addition to the seniors, six law students attended one of the educational sessions. Their participation enhanced their understanding of “The Five Easy Steps to Advance Care Planning” and the issues faced by elders. This, in turn, will provide a benefit to the communities they will serve throughout their legal careers.

Wingate at Beacon
Wingate at Ulster
Wingate Healthcare has been active in many Hudson Valley initiatives and coalitions. Its adoption of a value-based care model that addresses readmission reduc­tion and transitional care supports consistent patient engage­ment processes, enhanced care delivery sys­tems, and sustained community based partnerships.

The implementation of a comprehensive Transitional Care Model at Wingate’s Beacon and Ulster sites supports physician and care manager communication across all care settings.

This model has resulted in improved quality of care; increased physician involvement and satisfaction with care management; and reduced caregiver strain due to ongoing support, education and communication across the continuum.  Results also include a 28% to 9% reduction in hospital readmission rates from skilled nursing facilities within the first three months of implementation and a reduction in length of stay from an average of 60–100 days to 7–21 days.