MountainView Regional Medical Center Awarded Honor in Hospital Quality
10/28/2019
Hospital’s “team huddles” advance real-time, patient wellness and improved outcomes
Albuquerque, N.M. – MountainView Regional Medical Center in Las Cruces, N.M., has earned the Quest for Excellence General Acute Care Hospital Award, the New Mexico Hospital Association’s (NMHA’s) premier honor for larger hospitals (hospitals with more than 25 beds). The hospital was honored for enlisting multiple teams and approaches to reduce by 65 percent the occurrence of adverse patient events such as those that may occur during a hospital stay, after operations or procedures, and childbirth. The award was presented in a ceremony at the 74th Annual Meeting of the NMHA in Albuquerque.
Derrick Cuenca, MountainView Regional Medical Center CEO, and key hospital staff accepted the award from Jeff Bourgeois, CEO of San Juan Regional Medical Center and NMHA board of directors chair, and Marie Cleary-Fishman, Vice President of Clinical Quality for the American Hospital Association (AHA). Commitment to quality and patient safety is central to the mission of NMHA and AHA member hospitals, shared Bourgeois and Cleary-Fishman.
MountainView is one of just three New Mexico hospitals to earn the competitive award for work conducted between August 2018-August 2019. Their effort began by exploring ideas on how they could efficiently improve their performance on the 15 major, nationally recognized Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs). They determined that a rigorous practice of “team huddles” was the most effective way to achieve their goal.
Team huddles consist of staff ranging from clinical and assistive personnel to social work and case managers, coming together when shifts begin and quickly discussing patient concerns, safety issues and updates. In healthcare, the “winning play” produced by team huddles is real- time, improved patient wellness and outcomes.
MountainView took their team huddles to the next level, incorporating discussions of specific patient care plans, and coding and physician documentation components. This process allowed for more timely treatment and analysis of high-risk situations and improved the accuracy of clinical documentation and billing.
“The hospital’s comprehensive plan put into action has made MountainView Regional Medical Center a leader in the state and nation in fostering patient quality and access to services,” said Jeff Dye, NMHA president and CEO.
It takes a team, representing multiple disciplines, to make patient quality and safety gains a reality. The MountainView team included the following hospital staff also present to receive the award: Kelly Clark, RN (Chief Nursing Officer), Kelly Garland, RN (Quality Coordinator), James Lin, MD (Director CDI), Erin Martin, RN (Chief Quality Officer), Sheila Smith, RN (Director, Cardiac Telemetry and Dialysis), and Jake Taylor (Assistant CEO).
For more on the strides New Mexico hospitals have made in advancing patient safety and quality in their communities, listen to the NMHA Advancing Quality & Patient Safety Podcast at https://anchor.fm/nmha. Podcast guests include healthcare and clinical experts across our state.
New Mexico Hospital Association (NMHA) represents 46 New Mexico hospitals, health networks, ambulatory facilities, home health agencies and affiliate groups on state and federal legislative and regulatory public policy issues. NMHA partners with its members and others to improve, through best practices and innovation, the health status of New Mexico residents. It is an authoritative source for hospital data used in public policy initiatives. For over five decades, NMHA has advocated for the common good and collective interests of its members and patients, in an ever-changing health care environment.
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