ST. LOUIS - The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), an alliance of the nation’s leading nonprofit academic medical centers, has named Barnes-Jewish Hospital a recipient of the 2014 Rising Star Award. The award recognizes significant improvements in a hospital’s ranking in UHC’s annual Quality and Accountability Study, which identifies exemplary performance in patient safety, mortality, clinical effectiveness and equity of care.
The hospital is now ranked 17 out of 117 academic medical centers on UHC’s list.
“This is a huge accomplishment for Barnes-Jewish,” says Rich Liekweg, BJH president and BJC group president. “Four years ago, BJH and our Washington University Physician partners set a clear and deliberate goal to be a top decile UHC medical center. We have a dedicated team that is committed to excellence and has the full support of our Board. We benchmark our progress daily, weekly and monthly to ensure all team members and physicians remain focused on taking exceptional care of each and every patient.”
“We have experienced an almost meteoric rise from number 87 in 2011, to 72 in 2012, to 56 in 2013 and now to number 17. The top decile is within reach but we can’t let up,” says John Lynch, MD, BJH chief medical officer.
Roz Corcoran, BJH director of patient safety and clinical performance improvement, agrees that we can’t afford to take our eyes off the top decile goal. “This shows that our approach, commitment and GDP (goal deployment process) are working. We’re reaping the rewards but we need to focus on hardwiring the processes into our system, sustainability and continuing to improve. Other hospitals are going to be chasing us,” says Corcoran.
The numbers for Barnes-Jewish are encouraging. In seven out of nine core measures, BJH is a top performer. In the safety domain, which is 25 percent of the scorecard, BJH is number 9. In 2011, we were 91, in 2012 we were 57, and in 2013 we were 18.
In the effectiveness domain, which includes all-cause readmissions, BJH is number 19. The hospital’s mortality score is also getting better in large part due to the work of Katie Henderson, MD, BJH assistant chief medical officer. “Katie has led the work that has produced incremental precision in the way we document each patient's illness burden. We also have new programs that focus on sepsis care and the prevention of complications,” says Lynch.
“As the recipient of the UHC Rising Star Award, Barnes-Jewish Hospital exhibits the ethos of continuous quality improvement and accountability that is needed to deliver outstanding patient care in today’s health care system,” said Irene M. Thompson, UHC’s president and chief executive officer. “The fact that this organization was selected from a group of more than 100 academic medical centers is a true testament to its focus on improving quality and patient safety.”
BJH joined UHC in 2006 so it could benchmark itself against other academic medical centers and benefit from an array of performance improvement tools that assist members in reaching and achieving the highest levels of quality, safety and care.
“Our team members should be proud of this accomplishment. On behalf of hospital leadership, I applaud your amazing dedication to our top decile goal. This wouldn’t have happened without each of you,” says Liekweg.
About Barnes-Jewish Hospital
Barnes-Jewish Hospital is a 1,315 bed teaching hospital affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. The hospital has a 1,763 member medical staff, with many recognized as "Best Doctors in America." Barnes-Jewish is a member of BJC HealthCare, which provides a full range of health care services through its 12 hospitals and more than 100 health care sites in Missouri and Illinois.
Contact:
Kara Price-Shannon
(314) 286-0751
[email protected]