Crittenden Regional Hospital Departments Receive Quality Awards

July 17, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Crittenden Regional Hospital, Home Health and the Delta Center on Aging were all presented awards this year by the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care (AFMC). AFMC is the state's Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Arkansas. Their mission is to promote excellence in healthcare through evaluation and education.

The Innovator Awards that Crittenden Regional received where given to hospitals that demonstrated community innovation by documenting successful care coordination projects across settings in its communities.

Crittenden Regional Hospital Home Health received an Innovator Award through its partnership with the Delta Center on Aging and Crittenden Regional Hospital to develop a congestive heart failure self-management training program to help decrease acute care hospitalization. Educational resources and workshops for healthcare professionals were provided.

A Quality Improvement Award was presented to the Delta Center on Aging for its implementation of electronic health records (EHR) system using data management templates for easier monitoring of patient's health. Review of the data led to additional training for disease management template documentation.

The Delta Center on Aging also received a Health Information Technology (HIT) Award through its implementation of an EHR system which produced reports on Medicare patients on four of AFMC's outpatient quality indicators. An Innovator Award was also presented for Delta Center on Aging improved coordination with Crittenden Regional Hospital and the University of Arkansas for Medical for Sciences (UAMS) Delta Area Health Education Center by utilizing disease management templates to refer diabetics into diabetes self-management programs.

Crittenden Regional Hospital was presented an Innovator Award for successfully coordinating the management and care of patients with heart failure in the community by working with Crittenden Regional Home Health, UAMS/AHEC, the Arkansas Department of Health, United Way, AFMC, Delta Center on Aging, and the American Hearth Association. Also, as a collaborative effort with several external organizations, a single discharge form was created that lists all patient medications and fosters interdisciplinary use. The form has provided patients with safe guidelines for combining home and hospital-prescribed medications.