Christiana Care Health Services Earns
The Joint Commission’s 2007 Ernest Amory Codman Award
(OAKBROOK TERRACE, Ill. – November 6, 2007) The Joint Commission today named Christiana Care Health Services, Wilmington, Delaware, a 2007 recipient of the 11th annual Ernest Amory Codman Award. The award recognizes excellence in the use of outcomes measurement by health care organizations to achieve improvements in the quality and safety of health care.
Christiana Care is one of three recipients of the award in the hospital category and is being recognized for an initiative to improve care for patients with sepsis, the leading cause of death for patients in intensive care units. The program resulted in a reduced mortality rate for patients with severe sepsis to 30.2 percent from 61.7 percent during a two-year period.
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.
“We are pleased to recognize the 2007 Codman Award recipients for their innovative approaches 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 performance measurement leads to meaningful practices that benefit patients.”
Christiana Care formed an interdisciplinary team in 2004 to address three major areas of sepsis care: identification of patients with sepsis, resuscitation strategies and ICU management. The resulting “Sepsis Alert” program for all patients includes care management guidelines, treatment algorithms, order sets, kits with single-dose vials of antibiotics and multidisciplinary education about sepsis and the importance of prompt, aggressive management.
“My colleagues and I are deeply honored by this recognition. The Codman Award reminds us of the good that we in the health profession can do when we share our talent and expertise,” says Robert J. Laskowski, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Christiana Care. “The Codman Award inspires us to continue to be tireless in our pursuit of excellence.”
Christiana Care’s program reduced the average length of hospital stay by 22.3 percent and increased patients discharged to home by 197.2 percent. Other improvements include increases in patients receiving antibiotic therapy within the first hour before or after issuance of a Sepsis Alert from 86 percent to 97 percent; decreased average time from emergency department triage to first antibiotic administration from 2.9 hours to less than two hours and an increased percentage of patients receiving fluid resuscitation from 92 percent to 100 percent.
Founded in 1888, Christiana Care is one of the region’s largest not-for-profit health care providers, serving the people of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Christiana Care is recognized as a regional center for excellence in cardiology, cancer, women’s health services and Level-I trauma and Level-3 neonatal intensive care. Christiana Care 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: Broward General Medical Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; 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.