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Pictured from left to right is Nick Henley, vice president of external affairs, HANYS; Anna Gaeta, associate vice president of quality, Saratoga Hospital; and Robert Panzer, MD, quality steering committee chairman, HANYS, and associate vice president for patient care quality and safety and chief quality officer at Strong Memorial Hospital. Photo courtesy of HANYS.
Saratoga Hospital recently received the 2019 Pinnacle Award for Quality and Patient Safety for “achieving universal sepsis excellence through a patient- and staff-centered culture along with alignment of purpose, people and processes.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), sepsis is “the body’s extreme response to an infection” and that “sepsis happens when an infection you already have —in your skin, lungs, urinary tract, or somewhere else—triggers a chain reaction throughout your body.”
The Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) presents the award annually to highlight significant achievements in improving quality and patient safety in healthcare delivery.
According to the official HANYS website, “All HANYS members are encouraged to encouraged to apply for this award. Each year, a panel of expert judges from across the country review all nominations, and winners are honored at HANYS’ Annual Membership Conference.”
A compendium of nominees on the website said that last year, 114 healthcare providers were nominated and four won, one for outpatient providers and three for different capacity hospitals, under 200 beds, over 500 beds and in between. Each of the providers won for different reasons, ranging from treating opioid addiction to reducing blood culture contamination.
This year, Saratoga Hospital is one of five nominees in the state that received the award at the HANYS’s 51st annual Membership Conference in Saratoga Springs last week, on Aug. 14.
The other four recipients of the 2019 award are Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, Rochester Regional Health and Stony Brook University Hospital.
“We are thrilled and honored to have achieved this highly competitive award,” Associate Vice President of Quality at Saratoga Hospital Anna Gaeta said. “Saratoga Hospital is lead- ing the way in sepsis early iden- tification and proper treatment protocols, resulting in lower readmissions, fewer deaths, and better overall outcomes for patients. We couldn’t have done it without the hospital’s collaborative, patient-centered culture and the spirit of teamwork, which are the core of our success.”
Jan Severance, RN and a quality risk specialist at Saratoga Hospital, said “nine years ago, my mother was residing in an assisted living facility, where she developed septic shock. She slipped into a coma and ultimately died.”
She continued, “that is one reason I am so passionate about our program. I don’t want others to experience such loss.”
According to a press release about the hospital receiving the award, “In the midst of the New York State Department of Health’s (NYSDOH) statewide campaign to improve early detection and intervention, Saratoga Hospital initiated a new sepsis program that is working so well, other hospitals are reaching out for guidance.”
Additionally, it said that Saratoga Hospital’s rate of 30-day readmissions for severe sepsis improved by 60% between 2015 and 2018, and mortality for severe sepsis improved by 43%. Overall, the hospital’s performance in compliance with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ and NYSDOH’s sepsis care recommendations has placed Saratoga Hospital in the top 10% of hospitals inNewYorkstateandnationwide.
For more information, contact Peter Hopper, Director of Marketing and Communications for Saratoga Hospital, at 518-583- 8679, or at phopper@saratogahospital.org.
