Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital Receives 2009 Michigan Rural Health Quality Improvement Achievement Award
December 22, 2009 in Aspirus News
Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital has received the Michigan Center for Rural Health’s 2009 Michigan Rural Health Quality Improvement Award for Quality Improvement Achievement. The award acknowledges quality improvement efforts in inpatient clinical performance in the care and treatment of heart failure and pneumonia and emergency room transfer performance.
This is the first year that the Michigan Center for Rural Health has offered this award. Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital applied evidence-based medicine to improve care processes in the treatment of heart failure and pneumonia and emergency room transfers.
“Award recipients are committed to providing their patients with high quality health care,” said John Barnas, Executive Director, of the Michigan Center for Rural Health. Barnas added “The Michigan Center for Rural Health is pleased to sponsor this award which is a testament to the dedication of hospital staff to provide the right care to the right patient each and every time.”
“Together our staff is demonstrating that we are providing the very best in medical care,” said Elizabeth Siivola, Director of Quality. “Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital is committed to the tenets of quality improvement that embrace evidence-based medicine to improve health outcomes.”
Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital established a multidisciplinary team who worked to identify opportunities to improve processes and create interventions that embraced evidence-based medicine to apply the best available evidence gained from the scientific method to medical decision making in the treatment of heart failure and pneumonia and emergency room transfers. Clinical indicators were based on the Appropriate Care Measure (ACM). ACM is a composite score that captures whether or not a patient received all the care that he or she was eligible to receive. The 2009 Michigan Rural Health Quality Improvement Award – Quality Improvement Achievement Award was based on an ACM score of 80 to 93%.
Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital was honored by The Michigan Center for Rural Health at an awards ceremony during the 10th Annual Michigan Critical Access Hospital Conference October 29, 2009 in Boyne Falls, Michigan. The Michigan Center for Rural Health is a non-profit organization formed in 1991 as part of a nation-wide, federal and state initiative to recognize the importance of rural health care and to create a mechanism for resources to flow to rural areas.
