Broward General Medical Center Earns
The Joint Commission’s 2007 Ernest Amory Codman Award
(OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. – November 6, 2007) The Joint Commission today named Broward General Medical Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a 2007 recipient of the 11th annual Ernest Amory Codman Award to recognize excellence in the use of outcomes measurement by health care organizations to achieve improvements in the quality and safety of health care.
Broward General Medical Center is one of three recipients of the award in the hospital category and is being recognized for an initiative to produce better outcomes related to the challenging issue of sedating children for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. The Broward General Medical Center program, which is part of the Chris Evert Children’s Hospital, reduced the failed sedation rate by 98 percent, from 1.63 percent in 2004 to 0.28 percent in 2006 - well below the national benchmark of 2 percent.
Named for the physician regarded in health care as the “father of outcomes measurement,” the Ernest Amory Codman Award showcases the effective use of performance measurement by health care organizations to improve the quality and safety of health care. The Joint Commission also recognizes an individual who has played a significant leadership role in promoting the use of performance measures to improve health care services, or who has made major contributions to the development and testing of performance measures or the science and art of quality improvement. A panel of national experts in quality measurement and improvement selected the seven recipients of the 2007 Awards.
“The 2007 Codman Award recipients deserve recognition for their innovations and commitment to using performance measurement to improve the quality and safety of health care,” says Dennis S. O'Leary, M.D., president, The Joint Commission. “Their achievements demonstrate the progress that can be made when process and outcomes measures are combined into meaningful practices that benefit patients.”
“Our most important priority with children is their safety and comfort,” says Alan Levine, president/chief executive officer of Broward Health, the parent company of Broward General Medical Center. “We are grateful the Codman Award recognizes our passion for children and the importance of setting the standard for care. Our physicians and staff strive every day to find new ways to improve the patient care experience, and we are so proud of these everyday heroes.”
Broward General Medical Center staff undertook this initiative in order to lower its failed sedation rate, which can result in prolonged imaging times, rescheduled tests that require the use of anesthesia and increased stress for the patient, parents and staff. To make improvements, the organization formed a team of specialized clinicians and staff members to standardize care, develop safe sedation protocols and achieve customer satisfaction. After examining protocols from nationally recognized children’s hospitals, conducting a root cause analysis to determine underlying factors and conducting a parent survey, Broward General Medical Center developed a standard protocol to reduce failed sedation, increase the efficiency and safety of pediatric sedation by involving parents and create an atmosphere to ease children’s fears.
In addition to significantly reducing the rate of failed sedation, the organization eliminated rescheduled exams and failed procedures by using a more effective sedative, and improved parent satisfaction to 99 percent from 62 percent and physician satisfaction to 100 percent from 33 percent. Sedation procedures at Broward General are now marked by rapid and reliable onset of sedative effect, maintenance of the patient’s airway, adequate spontaneous ventilation, continuing cardiovascular stability and a smooth and predictable awakening.
Chris Evert Children’s Hospital at Broward General Medical Center is a facility of Broward Health. Broward Health, providing service for more than 50 years, is a nationally recognized community health system and is one of the 10 largest public health systems in the nation.
Broward General Medical Center will formally receive the award on November 12, during The Joint Commission and Joint Commission Resources’ Annual Conference on Quality and Safety in Chicago. Additional award recipients in the following categories are:
· Behavioral Health Care: Addiction Treatment Services of Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland.
· Hospital: Christiana Care Health Services, Wilmington, Delaware; Saint Joseph Healthcare, Lexington, Kentucky.
· Long Term Care: Sea View Hospital Rehabilitation Center and Home, Staten Island, New York.
· Multiple Organization: Seton Family of Hospitals, Austin, Texas.
· Individual: John E. Wennberg, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Center for Evaluative Clinical Services at Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, New Hampshire.