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Thibodaux Regional Medical Center graciously received two awards for patient safety last week.
Louisiana Hospital Association Trust Funds and HealthGrades presented the awards to the medical center.
“The passion brought forth from staff, we appreciate so much everyone’s effort going the extra mile for our patients,” TRMC CEO Greg Stock said.
The medical center won the Safety Star Award from Louisiana Hospital Association Trust Funds for the second time in the criteria of quality of improvement and processes of improvement, according to the organization’s President and CEO Cindy Dolan.
This time, TRMC improved its door-to-balloon time by cutting it by more than half. Door-to-balloon describes the time it takes for a patient with a cardiac emergency to go from entering the hospital to being treated in the emergency room and the catheterization lab. The longer the time lingers, the greater the chance for cardiac muscle damage.
Experts recommend a door-to-balloon time of 90 minutes or less. TRMC previously averaged 70 minutes. Good, but not good enough for the medical center. Clinical Director of the Emergency Department and Registered Nurse Chrisy Myhand began the process of improving that time.
“Identifying through the process we saw that our communication wasn’t where it needed to be to be consistent, so by identifying that and eliminating it from the process we actually are consistent with reaching around 45 minutes now,” Myhand said.
With TRMC’s revamped communication method, the medical center said it took cardiac patients’ average time in the emergency room from 41 to 14 minutes and their average time in the catheterization lab from 29 to 25 minutes.
“It is a big success story across multiple departments of the hospital, a true change in facilities always requires that we have a degree of coordination and commitment from multiple different places, especially something as complicated as a very, very sick cardiac patient, and I think that’s the true key to success in this project,” TRMC emergency room Dr. Lisa Fort said. “ … It’s important to point out that Chrisy took each and every patient for years and went through every minute of their care in order to identify these communication breakdowns. It’s something that takes a lot of work, a lot of dedication, and I have to say that I think that was a real key in being able to develop a success.”
Fort added that TRMC now has quicker door-to-balloon times than medical centers in which she’s previously worked with bigger staffs.
TRMC then received the Patient Safety Excellence Award from HealthGrades. Adam Sanders, HealthGrades director of quality services, said the award is given to hospitals that are strong at treating patient safety events such as post-operative hemorrhage, post-operative heart failure, repertory failure and pressure ulcers, among others.
Of the roughly 5,000 hospitals HealthGrades rates nationwide, only 381 hospitals were recognized nationally for the 2014 Patient Safety Award.
“Thibodaux Regional Medical Center was in the top 5 percent, only one of seven hospitals in Louisiana and the only hospital in the bayou region to achieve this award, so it’s definitely going to show that [its] clinical excellence initiatives are making appearances in awards and [its] hard work is paying off,” HealthGrades Marketing Coordinator Maggie Foley said.
Glenn Landry (left) and Cindy Dolan (second from left) of Louisiana Hospital Association Trust Funds present the Safety Star Award to Thibodaux Regional Medical Center representatives (from left) Clinical Director of the Emergency Department Chrisy Myhand, Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Lab Mark Arceneaux and CEO Greg Stock. TRMC also received the Patient Safety Excellence Award from HealthGrades.
