Our Continued Pursuit of Clinical Excellence

Almost daily, I receive a call, a text message, an email, or hear of a story complimenting our clinical team on the care so compassionately delivered to our patients. I am humbled by the volume of accolades shared by our patients, families, nurses, and co-workers highlighting our team, and I want to say “Thank You” again to each one of our APP physicians and advanced practice clinicians (APCs) who strive daily to further our collective vision to exceed expectations by intentionally delivering quality, compassionate care to each patient we serve.

As we reflect back on 2018, our collective commitment to achieving excellence in our clinical performance highlights many accomplishments I want to recognize.

• As a team, we have achieved substantial improvements in our Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Metrics in the area of ED throughput. Specifically, in 2018, companywide we achieved a 10% reduction in Arrival to Provider time, a 27% reduction in LWBS%, and a 5% reduction in overall Length of Stay measures for both discharged and admitted patients.
• We have steadily enhanced our Sepsis (SEP-1) Core Measure performance, with many facilities achieving SEP-1 compliance above the national average.
• Our commitment to follow our Opiate Practice Standards and adhere to our safe opiate prescribing guidelines has reduced the overall number of opiate prescriptions written in our departments while providing safer care to our patients.
• Lastly, with regards to our MIPS program (Merit-based Incentive Payment System), we achieved “exceptional performance” across the board in both ED and HM in Year 1, and we are in the midst of finalizing our 2018 MIPS scores. Preliminary indications support we have continued our “exceptional performance” across all APP entities with this important CMS Quality program.

As we move into 2019, our collective focus is on raising the bar in clinical excellence and further building off the successes we achieved in 2018.

• We will continue our focus on reducing sepsis mortality across all facilities through consistent utilization of our Champions for Sepsis toolkit.
• We will continue to emphasize safer outpatient pain management through our Opiate Management Program.
• We will strive to exceed expectations in the Patient Experience through our commitment to intentionally enhance efficiency, convey empathy, and close each visit with thoughtful communication to ensure our patients understand our plan for care for them.

Through a coordinated approach, our collective teamwork, and a shared vision for exceeding expectations, we are consistently delivering a quality, compassionate, and efficient care experience in each one of our departments.