LifePoint Health® (NASDAQ: LPNT), of which Fauquier Hospital
is a part, has been named the recipient of the 2017 John M. Eisenberg Award for
Innovation in Patient Safety at the Local Level. Presented annually by The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum (NQF),
the prestigious Eisenberg Awards acknowledge major achievements in healthcare
quality and patient safety.
The first investor-owned health system to earn an Eisenberg
Award, LifePoint is being recognized for its National Quality Program, a structured process for ensuring
consistent, high standards of quality and patient safety. Created in
partnership with Duke University Health System, this program has led to
significant enhancements across the LifePoint network, including a more than 60
percent improvement in aggregate patient safety. Fauquier Hospital is enrolled and actively participating in this
program.
The LifePoint National Quality Program is a data-driven
program rooted in patient-centered care. The program is focused on leadership
that empowers people, proven systems of performance improvement, and a culture
of safety.
This initiative has helped create a highly reliable culture
of safety and drive enhancements across the LifePoint system, including a 62
percent improvement in aggregate patient safety compared to the company’s 2010
baseline. LifePoint has also achieved 12 months of zero central-line infections
at 73 percent of its hospitals.
Additionally, from 2010 to 2017, hospital-acquired
infections at LifePoint hospitals’ decreased by 78 percent for urinary tract
infections, 58 percent for sepsis infection, and 73 percent for pneumonia.
“We are so proud to be part of an organization like
LifePoint that is deeply committed to providing high quality care and ensuring
the safety of all patients,” said Chad Melton, chief executive officer of Fauquier
Hospital. “Through the National Quality Program, our team has worked closely
with Duke and LifePoint quality coaches to further strengthen our culture of
safety, continuously work to improve
care and enhance the patient experience for those we serve.”
“The LifePoint National Quality Program has established at
the hospital and system level an ongoing, measurable approach to driving
sustainable improvements in patient safety, quality and patient experience,”
said Rusty Holman, M.D., chief medical officer for LifePoint Health.
He added, “Because of the diverse hospitals within the LifePoint
system, this program offers many lessons for how healthcare facilities of all
types and sizes serving a variety of patient populations can operationalize
quality, create a national learning laboratory, and engineer a sustainable
culture of safety.”
The Eisenberg Awards, launched in 2002, honor the late John
M. Eisenberg, M.D., MBA, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ). Each year, Eisenberg Awards honor those making
strides in innovating patient safety and quality at the individual level, local
level and national level. The John M. Eisenberg Awards were presented at NQF’s
annual conference in Washington, DC, on March 12, and will be featured in the July 2018 issue of The Joint Commission Journal
on Quality and Patient Safety.