Munson Medical Center in Traverse City is once again in the national spotlight. At a special ceremony in San Diego, CA., Munson leaders accepted the 2008 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize(tm). The award was presented at the opening session of the AHA Health Forum Leadership Summit.
Each year, the AHA singles out one hospital in the nation for its top quality prize. This year's runner up was University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers.
"Munson Medical Center has created a culture where everyone — physicians, nurses, technicians, hospital board members, and administrators — are all engaged in safety and quality improvement," said AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock.
"Munson Medical Center asked the people who matter most in health care — the community it serves — to make sure its new facilities reflect the needs of patients and their families," Umbdenstock said. "Because Munson Medical Center engaged the community in its care improvement efforts, patients are more satisfied with their care and caregivers are even more committed to providing the best care possible."
The AHA conducted a site visit at Munson in February after narrowing the selection to five finalists. The committee was extremely impressed by the remarkable progress Munson has made in its 15-year plus quality improvement journey. "The committee, in particular, believed that the strong leadership and active engagement of the board, executive management, and medical staff leadership are exemplary," said Gail Lovinger Goldblatt, Vice President, Association Governance and Director, AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize.
The annual award honors organizations that have systematically committed to achieving the Institute of Medicine's six quality aims: safety, patient-centeredness, effectiveness, efficiency, timeliness, and equity. It also honors hospitals that can provide replicable models and systems for others to follow.
"This award is impressive because it is given to one hospital from among all categories of hospitals, from academic and teaching hospitals to those in rural settings," said Ed Ness, Munson Medical Center President and CEO.
"We are honored and humbled to be singled out for this recognition," Ness said. "Our quality journey truly is an organization-wide effort, led by our board and carried out by every physician, employee and volunteer. Quality outcomes also are a regional effort in northern Michigan, supported by the strong community hospitals in our system."
Munson Healthcare President and CEO Doug Deck said the AHA award strengthens the system's position as a quality leader, not only in northern Michigan, but in the nation. "As a system, we are working to ensure that patients throughout our region benefit from shared standards of care and quality initiatives."
Carl Benner, MD, Chair of the Board Quality Committee, was one of the pioneers of quality improvement at Munson. "We've always sought to be the best," he said. "We never thought that because we were a smaller hospital in a rural region that we had to lower our expectations."
Transparency, a willingness to openly acknowledge and work on mistakes and near-misses, also impressed the selection committee. "Munson has worked to improve error reporting since the early 1990s - it's the biggest cultural breakthrough we've had," Ness said. "If we can't talk about our mistakes, we can't prevent them."
Since 1996, Munson Medical Center has participated in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Breakthrough Collaborative. "Results of that participation included an intense focus on measurement and data as the means to objectively assess our practices and set goals for future improvement," said Terry Haslinger, Administrator for Patient Safety and Performance Improvement.
Today Munson is recognized as a very data-driven organization, with constant monitoring of quality indicators to ensure progress toward quality goals. Haslinger said the $75,000 prize money will be used toward the purchase of software to monitor quality data, specifically core measures established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services related to heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical infection prevention.
"Quality improvement is part of the culture at Munson Medical Center," said John Erb, a member of Board Quality and the Patient Safety Council. "It is woven into the fabric of the organization at every level. It's the strategy that drives everything we do. Quality is the first item on the agenda at board meetings."
"Physicians also play a key role in the hospital's improvement efforts," said Dan Navin, MD, a pulmonary medicine and critical care specialist, and board member. "Physician leaders, such as myself, make it a priority to keep an open dialogue with the medical staff. We take peer review very seriously. The medical staff has agreed to specific standards for privileges, protocols, and behaviors."
The nursing staff was awarded Magnet status in 2006 by the American Nurses Credentialing Center and is equally engaged. "Nurses at the bedside have been key to our patient safety and quality improvement efforts," said Lori Kirkey, a nursing manager who was co-winner of this year's James Stephen Quality Award for work on medication reconciliation. "Nurses conduct analyses, serve on unit process improvement teams, and work with multidisciplinary groups to resolve issues, change processes, or develop new programs."
Munson has invested in leading-edge technology to improve patient safety. An electronic medical record has been integrated with other system hospitals and is being integrated with private practices. Bar coding of all inpatient medications was implemented two years ago to improve patient identification and reduce medication errors.
The Quest for Quality Prize is supported by grants from McKesson Corporation and the McKesson Foundation. The award is presented each July at the Health Forum and American Hospital Association Leadership Summit.
Munson Medical Center in Traverse City is once again in the national spotlight. At a special ceremony in San Diego, CA., Munson leaders accepted the 2008 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize(tm). The award was presented at the opening session of the AHA Health Forum Leadership Summit.