The Southeast Georgia Health System Camden Campus, located in St. Marys,
Georgia, has been named to the Georgia Hospital Association’s (GHA)
Hospital Engagement Network (HEN) Safety Leaders Circle, which recognizes
hospitals’ improvements in patient care throughout the 2012 year.
The Health System’s Camden Campus is one of 12 hospitals to place
in the Presidential Circle, positioning it in the top third of 116 Georgia
hospitals participating in the GHA HEN. “The Camden Campus clinical
team embraced and supported the 2012 target set as part of the Hospital
Engagement Network,” says Sherry L. Sweek, RHIA, CPHQ, CPMSM, director,
Quality Improvement, Southeast Georgia Health System. “The team
at Camden only had to select two areas of focus but instead chose to monitor
all the measures to demonstrate compliance with best practice standards.
These included implementing Leader Rounding and Safety Huddles to identify
opportunities for patient injury falls prevention and additional safety
measures.” Southeast Georgia Health System is a participant in the
GHA HEN, an initiative begun last year that is part of the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Service’s (CMS) Partnership for Patients.
GHA, through its Partnership for Health and Accountability (PHA), is one
of 27 organizations nationally to be awarded federal funding to coordinate
the implementation of a series of projects with hospitals. The goals of
these projects are to reduce hospital-acquired conditions (HAC) by 40
percent and hospital readmissions by 20 percent by the end of 2013. CMS
states that it has the potential to save 60,000 lives annually and create
$35 billion in savings to the nation’s health care system. Additionally,
it can help prevent 1.8 million injuries and 1.6 million patient readmissions.
To achieve these goals, there are major directives from CMS regarding
improved care in 10 core measures: Four are related to hospital-acquired
infections (HAI); four are related to HACs; one is related to obstetrics
(OB) and trying to eliminate elective deliveries before 39 weeks
; and
one is related to transition of care and reduction of readmissions. As
part of their participation in the GHA HEN, hospitals selected two of
these areas on which to focus in 2012. Scores for the Safety Leaders Circle
are based on several criteria, including a database that measures hospitals’
improvement in their respective selected areas. “We’re very
proud of our Camden Campus team members and their quality improvement
performance,” says Gary R. Colberg, FACHE, president & CEO,
Southeast Georgia Health System. “This accomplishment serves to
ensure our community that quality care and patient safety is always our
top priority. We will continue to seek opportunities to improve our processes,
reduce infections and readmissions rates, and exceed our community’s
expectations as their health care provider of choice.” “Thanks
to the leadership and commitment of Southeast Georgia Health System, we
are well on our way to achieving the significant life-saving goals of
this important initiative,” said Joseph Parker, president of GHA.
“We are proud to recognize the hard work of the Health System’s
staff and applaud their efforts and commitment to ensuring the reduction
of infections and readmissions.”