ROARING SPRING, PA (November 17, 2020) – Conemaugh Nason Medical Center today announced that it has been named a LifePoint Health National Quality Leader. This designation recognizes hospitals within the LifePoint Health system that have enrolled in the LifePoint National Quality Program and succeeded in transforming their culture of safety and achieving high standards of quality care, performance improvement and patient engagement.
"We are so proud of our team's efforts to ensure that our patients and their families have the best possible care and experiences and are delighted to recognize their hard work with this new designation," said Tim Harclerode, chief executive officer of Conemaugh Nason Medical Center. "The culture of safety we have created here is strengthened every day through the commitment of our providers and employees across all of our departments, and we look forward to continuing to advance how we deliver quality care close to home."
Conemaugh Nason Medical Center (“Nason”) is a 45-bed facility that has served people in Roaring Spring and the surrounding area for more than 100 years. To achieve LifePoint Health National Quality Leader designation, the Nason team worked to implement a number of best practices and launch new initiatives to engage patients and families, enhance patient safety and improve quality care.
The hospital team implemented the “Foundational Five” Safety Behaviors, which include conducting daily briefs, debriefs and huddles; using learning boards; and practicing executive patient safety rounding in all departments. Executive patient safety rounding helps ensure that leaders at every level of the organization engage with staff, physicians, patients and families about quality and patient safety. The hospital also implemented hourly patient rounding, as well as bedside shift reporting to help ensure clear communication, reduce the risk of errors and maintain consistency of care during shift changes.
"We are delighted to recognize Conemaugh Nason Medical Center’s leadership in quality," said Victor Giovanetti, FACHE, executive vice president, hospital operations for LifePoint Health. "The hospital team’s ongoing efforts to drive improvements in quality, patient safety, and patient and family engagement are informing best practices across our organization and directly advancing our mission of Making Communities Healthier."
When hospitals enroll in the National Quality Program, they begin working with LifePoint quality experts to evaluate and strengthen their quality programs and processes. Following an initial evaluation, the hospital creates a plan and begins to employ changes that will help it achieve quality improvement benchmarks and establish long-term solutions to sustain its results.
In addition to evaluating common quality care and patient safety metrics, the LifePoint National Quality Program focuses on foundational elements required to sustain quality care, including committed leadership, systems to ensure continuous performance and process improvement, and a culture dedicated to safety. LifePoint Health National Quality Leader designation denotes those hospitals that have achieved a broad range of criteria in each of these areas and demonstrate a capacity to continuously measure and improve quality and patient safety.
