McLeod honored nationally for quality, safety and patient care

SAN DIEGO — McLeod Regional Medical Center has been recognized nationally for leadership and innovation in quality, safety, and a commitment to patient care. The 2010 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize™, awarded annually to one hospital in the country, will be presented Thursday to McLeod in San Diego.

McLeod is the first hospital in South Carolina to receive this prestigious honor since the inception of the national Quest for Quality Prize in 2002.

A team of staff, physicians and leadership is attending the 2010 American Hospital Association Leadership Summit, where the award will be presented. Dr. William Boulware, chief of the McLeod Regional Medical Staff, and Rob Colones, president and CEO of McLeod Health, will accept the award on behalf of McLeod.

McLeod was selected for the 2010 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize® by a multi-disciplinary committee of health care quality and patient safety experts from across the nation for the honor, based on the McLeod culture of quality and efforts to achieve the Institute of Medicine’s six quality aims for health care — by engaging physicians, staff and leadership in efforts to improve quality through safety, patient-centered care, timeliness, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity.

“We are proud of this achievement by our medical staff and our people who work on behalf of our patients and their families daily. We are committed to ongoing efforts toward quality improvements: Safety, Effectiveness, Patient-Centered Care, Timeliness, Efficiency and Equity to our programs and services,” Colones said.

All U.S. hospitals are eligible for the annual American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize. McLeod Regional Medical Center is the 2010 winner, Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan is the finalist and Queens Hospital Center in New York received the citation of merit.

“Each hospital recognized has taken a slightly different path in its efforts to improve quality and patient care,” said Rich Umbdenstock, AHA President and CEO. “But each has successfully created a new culture — one based on trust, understanding and openness. That culture is absolutely essential in the continuous process of change that is necessary to ensuring that care is always the safest and of the highest quality it can possibly be.”

According to the American Hospital Association release, McLeod “has engrained all six of the Institute of Medicine’s quality aims into its clinical, service and operational improvement and the hospital’s governing board, medical staff and executive management closely collaborate on quality improvement initiatives. Coordination and teamwork between the leadership and front-line caregivers, as well as a focus on patient-centered care, are vital to the organization’s success.”

Improvement processes highlighted include that McLeod:

-- Develops methods to improve care, showing progress in performance improvement initiatives, and challenges the hospital may be facing, and potential solutions.

-- Intensifies a commitment to clinical, operational and service excellence. Employees work ceaselessly to provide safe, high-quality care and the hospital continuously seeks out change methodologies that are reliable and effective.

-- Rigorously and systematically collects and uses data in all aspects of patient care and quality improvement, focusing on system-level improvements. Special teams of staff members who work in areas unrelated to a specific improvement initiative oversee operational effectiveness projects to provide new perspective to the process.

The goals of the American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize are to raise awareness of the need for a hospital-wide commitment to highly reliable, exceptional quality, patient-centered care as well as to reward successful efforts to develop and promote system-wide approaches toward improvements in quality of care.

In 2007, McLeod was recognized with a Citation of Merit by the American Hospital Association in the ’American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize.’

Among the previous honorees are Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, Mich.; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston; Duke University Hospital, Durham, N.C.; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles; Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati; Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Norfolk, Va.; and The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore.

About McLeod
McLeod Health, a regional presence and predominant health care organization, is dedicated to patients and their families. Founded in 1906, McLeod is a locally owned, not-for-profit institution that features the strength of more than 400 physicians on the medical staff and more than 1,400 nurses, in addition to modern facilities; premier technology; and a dedication to improving the health of the communities it serves. McLeod Health is one of the largest employers in the region, composed of more than 4,700 employees and nearly 40 medical practices. The McLeod Health respected acute-care facilities, McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, as well as McLeod Medical Center Darlington and McLeod Medical Center Dillon, also give McLeod Health greater flexibility in providing care to those throughout the northeastern region of South Carolina.

About AHA
The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the improvement of health in their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which include almost 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks and other providers of care. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends.

About McKesson Corp.
McKesson Corp., currently ranked 14th on the FORTUNE 500, is a health care services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality health care by reducing costs, streamlining processes, and improving the quality and safety of patient care. During the course of its 177-year history, McKesson has grown by providing pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; health care information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients.