Seven Rivers

Source: Healthcare Digital

Date :18/03/2008 06:04:48

CEO Joyce Brancato explains how a commitment to quality and adherence to cutting-edge industry guidelines has brought Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center to the forefront of the hospital industry

Written by Emmet Cole and Produced by Pat Harlow

Not all hospitals are the same. Patients know this. So, when it comes to choosing where to get treatment for themselves or close relatives, the decisive factor is often the facility’s reputation for providing high quality healthcare.

With organizations like The Joint Commission and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement monitoring the activity of the myriad of healthcare facilities in the U.S., patients are turning to healthcare providers that they can trust.

At the forefront of trusted medical care providers is a 128-bed general medical/surgical acute care facility, known as Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center. Based in Crystal River, Florida, Seven Rivers Regional has been caring for the citizens of Citrus, Levy, and South Marion counties for 30 years. The Center is fully accredited by The Joint Commission, a not-for-profit organization that certifies over 15,000 healthcare organizations and centers in the US, and reflects a symbol of quality and integrity for patients and their families.

The Center recently received its disease-specific certification as a primary stroke center, explains CEO Joyce Brancato who has been at Seven Rivers Regional for 22 of its 30 years and has a background in clinical nursing.

Working within Guidelines

The Center is only one of 277 hospitals in the nation recognized for its adherence to guidelines set by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and its stellar performance in its “Get With The Guidelines” program for the second consecutive year. The program leverages the use of health information to improve the quality of care provided by physicians and staff in facilities throughout the country.

Comprised of a rigorous process that is divided into two stages, the program first evaluates pre-determined clinical measures and clinical practice guidelines for each facility that yields evidence-based, relevant, valid, and reliable results, according to the American Heart Association’s website.

The second stage measures standardized performance through clearly defined specifications, data collection and established protocols, and whether evaluation criteria can be uniformly adopted by a range of facilities and service care providers.

Through its adherence to these evidence-based guidelines, Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center has become one of the most qualified, reliable facilities to manage congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction (heart attacks), and stroke, among other conditions. The Center has “been able to turn those guidelines into actual life lines and incorporate them into the daily care plan,” says Brancato, thereby earning performance awards by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

The Center has also successfully participated in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Protecting Five Million Lives From Harm campaign, which focuses on ‘primum non nocere’, the Latin phrase all physicians live by that translates to “first, do no harm.” Since December 2006, the campaign is working to protect patients from five million incidents of medical harm through December 2008, according to IHI’s website. As part of their participation in the program, they’ve implemented a rapid response team as part of a patient safety initiative at the facility.

Quality Patient Care

With Get With The Guidelines adherence scores ranging from 90 percent to 95 percent, the Center is a high-performance hospital dedicated to providing the best care to the community. It has also received the Gold Seal of Approval for primary stroke center, which required demonstrating to The Joint Commission their implementation of protocols to rapidly assess and treat incoming patients who suffer from strokes and other conditions.

As part of their strategic plan for the facility, the Center has successfully been granted a Certificate of Need from the State of Florida to add an inpatient comprehensive medical rehabilitation unit to the hospital.

“We were able to demonstrate a need to bring this service to our community,” Brancato explains, “because the closest facility was 50 miles away.”

Along with accurate statistical data, much of their defense for the certificate relied upon scientific literature that supports the importance of dedicated physical and occupational therapy of recovering stroke victims in order to maximize the gain in motor and other function for patients. Now that Seven Rivers has been granted the state’s approval, it can move forward and begin renovations later this Spring. A year from that, the service will be available for patients.

Integrating Health Information Technology

The hospital’s focus on quality patient care is shown by the addition of two operating rooms - the need for which has been made obvious with the growth of patient admissions and in-patient surgeries in the past twelve months. Seven Rivers intends to add “Smart OR’s” which integrate monitors, lights, OR tables, endoscopic equipment, cameras and other technology.

“With Smart ORs, all of your endoscopic and video equipment for non-invasive surgeries is suspended from the ceiling. So, you don’t have video towers and your scopes on carts surrounding your surgical team,” Brancato explains. “As well, it allows for digital images to be accessed on a monitor within the OR suite. Ultimately, Smart ORs result in maximum efficiency and patient safety.”

Another initiative for improving patient care is the adoption of new diet management software made by CBORD known as AccuMenu. The Center will no longer have to manually maintain patients’ dietary specifications. A handheld palm-like device that is fully automated holds the hospital’s entire dietary database and can store patients’ preferences. More than a nicety, the device is also an educational tool. Because it can store the facility’s entire database of diet menus, food allergies, drug interactions, calorie count and any conflicting food-drug interactions, hospital staff can verify a patient’s questions or explain why one food preference or choice would have to be substituted for another, says Brancato.

With over 550 staff, the facility has been able to recruit quality staff and physicians through its new recruitment website, which provides a virtual tour of the hospital, its people and the community – It provides prospective staff members as close an idea of what the hospital and Crystal River is like as they could get without being there.

ADHERENCE?With thousands of hospitals across the US to choose from, Seven Rivers Regional Medical Center in Crystal River, FL is one of the best. Receiving recognition ranging from the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for its designation as a primary stroke center to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Performance Awards for adherence to the Get With The Guidelines program, Seven Rivers Regional resides at the top of the nation’s list of high-performance hospitals.

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Seven Rivers