Qualis Health Honors Excellence in Idaho’s Healthcare Industry

March 3, 2008

Boise - Qualis Health presented the 2007 Awards of Excellence in Healthcare Quality today, recognizing six outstanding healthcare providers in Idaho. The organizations received award plaques during a luncheon ceremony on March 3rd at the Annual Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Conference, which is being held March 3rd and 4th in Boise.

Jonathan Sugarman, MD, MPH, President and CEO of Qualis Health, and Sharon Wilson, Director, Idaho Medicare Operations, made the formal presentation of this year’s awards. Qualis Health is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of healthcare delivery and health outcomes. The awards recognize individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions to healthcare through innovative, measurable improvements in care.

The awards are given in several categories including large urban hospitals, rural hospitals, nursing homes, physicians’ offices, home health agencies and patient safety.

Idaho healthcare providers submitted nominations for the awards in late December and early January. The nominations were evaluated by a group of seven judges, including representatives of healthcare professional groups and associations. Each nomination was independently scored on a 100-point scale. Award winners were given the opportunity to show their quality improvement efforts as poster displays or as a 20-minute presentation for their peers during the conference.

The Idaho 2007 Awards of Excellence were given for the following healthcare improvement projects:

Large Urban Hospital: Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, Boise

For outstanding work in creating a multidisciplinary diabetes management plan which enables the health care team to provide quality care to patients with diabetes by promoting optimal glycemic control.

Rural Hospital: Caribou Memorial Hospital, Soda Springs

For successfully improving patient outcomes by improving nurse professionalism, collaboration, morale and reducing turnover by implementing a Shared Governance in the Nursing Department.

Nursing Home: Trinity Mission Health and Rehab of Holly, LP, Nampa

For outstanding work in formulating and implementing a team approach to wound management, thus reducing the incidence of pressure sores, stasis ulcers and non-pressure sores.

Physicians Office/Clinic: Pocatello Family Medicine, Pocatello

For successfully improving their quality and patient safety processes through implementation of a “Quality of Culture Project.” As a result of their work, Pocatello Family Medicine has been singled out by Medicare and Idaho Medicaid as one of the few in the nation that can readily generate reliable clinic data.

Home Health: Helping Hands Home Health, Pocatello

For outstanding work in the reduction of acute care hospitalizations by implementing an effective referral and assessment process to identify ‘high risk’ patients, and improving communication between the different disciplines.

Patient Safety: Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, Boise

For outstanding work in patient safety by utilizing a team collaborative effort to hospital MRSA reduction demonstrated by multiple approaches including implementing an active surveillance program for MRSA.

Qualis Health also recognized hospitals that received a 100 percent validation score for submitting data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Providers participating in CMS’s quality improvement initiatives must submit data relating to heart attacks, pneumonia, heart failure and surgical improvement. The score that they receive reflects a hospital’s ability to collect data according to CMS’s Manual for National Hospital Quality Measures specifications. A score of 100 percent denotes reliably accurate data submissions.

Qualis Health recognizes the following hospitals for the major effort required to receive a 100 percent validation score:

Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center: third quarter 2006 & first quarter 2007
St. Luke’s Wood River Medical Center: third quarter 2006
Mountain View Hospital: fourth quarter 2006
Healthsouth Treasure Valley Hospital: first quarter 2007

Contact Us

For media inquiries, please contact:

Evan Stults
Vice President, Communications
(206) 288-2458
evans@qualishealth.org