Pictured from left to right: Laura J. Redoutey, president of NHA, Barb Peterson, Great Plains Health chief quality officer, Krystal Claymore, Great Plains Health Innovation Network executive director and Margaret Woeppel, vice president of quality initiatives, NHA
Great Plains Health was recognized as the recipient of the Quest for Excellence Award for non-critical access hospitals at the recent Nebraska Hospital Association Annual Convention. This is the fifth time that Great Plains Health has received this prestigious award within the last eight years.
The Quest for Excellence Award recognizes outstanding efforts to improve hospital quality and patient care for the people of the State of Nebraska. The award represents the highest level of professional acknowledgement in Nebraska’s hospital quality improvement arena.
“Great Plains Health is committed to improving quality and patient care and our track record reflects that,” said Barb Petersen, chief quality officer. “We are in a state of constant improvement; always looking at areas of opportunity to get better.”
Great Plains Health received this award for the successful implementation of guidelines for diagnostic imaging utilization and imaging efficiently. Through a collaborative effort stemming from the Great Plains Health Innovation Network, a team of healthcare providers and data analysts evaluated the top diagnoses that utilize diagnostic imaging with the focus of reducing duplicate imaging as well as utilizing the best diagnostic imaging tool first.
“The key to this quality improvement initiative was the collaboration among our medical community,” said Krystal Claymore, executive director of Great Plains Health Innovation Network. “They truly wanted to develop meaningful guidelines that would be used across our medical community that would improve patient safety and care.”
“Overuse of diagnostic imaging increases the cost of care and can also lead to health concerns due to increased exposure to radiation in addition to reactions to the contrast for various tests,” said Petersen. “When we see an opportunity to improve the patient experience while simultaneously improving outcomes, we jump at the chance. In the short time that the imaging efficiently guidelines have been adopted, we have already seen a decrease in the number of diagnostic imaging tests being ordered. For example, the Heart Failure (HF) imaging, which includes X-ray, CT, MRI and ultrasound indicated a 90 percent reduction for number of images.”
The Great Plains Health Innovation Network Quality Committee teamed with an experienced radiologist, Dr. Ladd Lake to lead this initiative of ensuring that the best diagnostic imaging test is ordered the first time. “We are not telling the clinician that they cannot order anything, what we are telling them, is that we want you to order the single best exam,” said Dr. Lake.
“Because of this work effort, we have been able to achieve improved safety and improved outcomes while at the same time reducing the cost of care for our patients,” said Claymore.
“This award was a huge validation of the hard work that has been put into this initiative,” said Petersen. “GPHealth was competing against many other, much larger hospitals across the state of Nebraska. To be able to attain this award on a state level above our peers is quite an achievement.”