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Seven military treatment facilities from around the world picked up honors during the Defense Department’s Quality and Patient Safety Awards. The awards were bestowed on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014, at the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States (AMSUS) conference in Washington, D.C. The awards recognize efforts to improve the care delivered within the Military Health System (MHS) and identify facilities which have shown innovation and commitment to the development of systems and processes that are tightly organized around the needs of the patient.
“The Department of Defense is committed to creating a culture of safety and quality care, and seeks to recognize the efforts of its facilities that exemplify this mission,” said Heidi King, section chief for the Defense Health Agency’s Patient Safety Health System Performance Branch. “The Quality and Patient Safety Award identifies those who have shown initiative and commitment to the development of systems and processes that are tightly organized around the patients’ needs and demonstrate improvement.”
The following facilities were honored during the event:
U.S. Naval Hospital Guam’s initiative was to reduce pressure ulcer incidence, developing an evidence‐based, nurse-driven Pressure Ulcer Prevention Program. The result was increased staff awareness of offloading pressure points for inpatients and increased access to wound care specialists for all patients, reducing incidence of pressure ulcers within the hospital by 72 percent from 2012 to 2013.
Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, Virginia, sought to identify safety concerns associated with the physical design of the patient room. By making modifications to patients' bathroom doors, the hospital was able to create a safer patient care environment, minimizing the risk of injuries associated with falls and reducing injuries associated with patient room design by 100 percent.
Martin Army Community Hospital, Fort Benning, Georgia, reorganized and automated its refill pharmacy operations to create a culture of safety. The reorganization included change in prescription process workflow, inventory management, location of medications, change of culture and the use of automation. This facility saw a 97 percent reduction in average patient wait times and a 100 percent decrease of medication errors and “good catches/near misses” due to medication bundling.
Naval Medical Center San Diego, California expanded on an existing medical rapid response team program by implementing a behavioral emergency response team (BERT) to ensure a rapid and safe response to behavioral emergencies or psychiatric behaviors that occur on non-psychiatric settings and to guarantee the safety of patients and staff members. BERT team members are trained to deescalate situations, and during the initial 5-month pilot the team responded to five behavioral emergencies and successfully decreased by 83 percent the number of assaults on staff and the need to call for a security response.
The 97th Medical Group, Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, sought to improve communication to increase patient satisfaction. The concept, titled, "Communication -A Bridge to Patient Satisfaction," made paramount the need to keep patients informed and communicating with the military treatment facility (MTF). The group at Altus combined three concepts: ensuring the patients know their primary care management team, the versatility of using MiCare (the online, patient communication tool) and being able to communicate with their providers in a timely manner, and first call resolution when patients contact the MTF.
Naval Hospital Bremerton, Washington state, implemented a basic obstetric support skills training program to help nurses provide the obstetrical support crucial in low‐resource settings. Strategic training opportunities are especially important for military nurses who practice in unique roles when supporting operational, humanitarian, and disaster relief missions. Participant survey results indicate that the program goal of increasing reported “comfort” within each course content area was achieved.
U.S. Naval Hospital Rota, Spain, was recognized for sustained success in promoting Primary Care Manager (PCM) Continuity. The Medical HomePort team developed and surpassed goals set to ensure our patient's see their own PCM first and if not available, they see a provider on the same team. This fosters the relationship between patients and providers, encourages and promotes continuity of their care, and prevents non-urgent emergency room visits. Success was measured as increasing PCM continuity to 84 percent, well above the Navy Medicine benchmark of 65 percent.
The awards were conceived as a way to encourage four important institutional goals for the MHS: raise awareness, reward successful efforts, inspire organizations and communicate success throughout the MHS.