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 The Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) Annual Health Care Awards honor the best and brightest in Minnesota health care - individuals who have offered dedicated service to hospitals and organizations that have implemented successful, innovative programs.
MHA Awards Banquet honoring 2008 winners will be held May 8, 2009 at the Metropolitan Ballroom in Golden Valley. The Call for Entries will be posted on this Web page the first week of February.
Congratulations to our 2007 winners:
Best Minnesota Hospital Workplace
Large hospital: Fairview Health Services of Minneapolis earns this award because of its "Benefit Tutor Program," a multi-cultural and multi-language outreach program that educates employees about their benefits. In the fall of 2005, 56 tutors helped 500 of their co-workers enroll online. Consequently, 96 percent of employees from all backgrounds signed up successfully. After that effort, one hospital's service-worker retention rate jumped from about 85 percent to 90 percent.
Today, tutors also help employees find medical and dental services and learn about scholarship opportunities, for example.
Small hospital: Buffalo Hospital adopted principals founded having leaders and managers make monthly "rounds" with staff. The senior leadership team also makes rounds with patients by delivering a daily paper to every inpatient.
Also, the hospital created a team of top performers throughout the hospital who developed standards of behavior that all staff now expect from one another. The team has also hosted a variety of fun events such as pumpkin-decorating contests.
The hospital's turnover rate in the last two years averaged about 14 percent, compared with about 20 percent in the industry. And 69 percent in a 2006 survey said they say positive things about their work experience. That's a 13-point increase over the year before.
Health Care Career Promotion
Large hospital: Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota, St. Paul/Minneapolis, encourages students and career-changers to enter health care, thereby trimming the worker-supply gap. Children's partners with medical magnet Roosevelt High School to provide mentorships to 290 Minneapolis-area students. In addition, the facility hosts "home-grown" career exploration opportunities, such as summer "brown bag lunches" at the hospital. Those sessions give student volunteers, hospital staff and local residents a chance to talk informally about specialties.
Lastly, this facility offers various programs that help adults transition into or advance in health-care jobs. For example, its shadowing opportunities in all disciplines are open to both employees and non-employees alike.
Small hospital: Lakewood Health System, Staples, partners with a local school district, college and high school to develop health-care curricula, career planning and other assistance. The consortium also hosts a community appreciation breakfast in which parents, students and others discuss health-career issues. A career exploration day at the hospital and an internship program add to the offerings.
One judge praised the effort this way: "Not only is the program comprehensive in the variety of health-care careers it covers, but also the fact that each intern's choices are announced in newspaper ads shows pride in the program.".
Patient Safety Improvement
Pressure ulcers
Large hospital (two winners):Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital of St. Louis Park drove down the number of stage 3 and 4 pressure ulcers -- the most serious ones -- from 13 to 3 in two years.
Achieving those results required a multi-faceted approach that was organized under the guidance of the Minnesota Hospital Association's SAFE SKIN program. To start, the hospital hired a safe-skin coordinator. It also hired a certified wound ostomy continence nurse specialist. In addition, the facility created a 24/7 paging system for reporting and tracking all stages of pressure ulcers. Last, all hospital mattresses were replaced with pressure-ulcer prevention mattresses.
Throughout all its efforts, this hospital has shared with others what it has learned through participation in SAFE SKIN conference calls and other activities.
HealthEast Care System of St. Paul shares the same award. The hospital system lowered its pressure ulcer occurrence from 10 stage 3 or 4 pressure ulcers in 2005 to absolutely none two years later. Again, this organization's work encompassed the MHA SAFE SKIN program.
For example, at a hospital with many rehabilitation patients, wound healing and physical conditioning are promoted through improved nutrition services. Acute-care hospitals focus on carefully inspecting post-op patients' skin.
Small hospital: Winona Health is a health system that instituted a multi-disciplinary team of physicians and nurses that meets regularly to review progress.
In addition to following SAFE SKIN, the organization also obtained a grant to fund purchase of new mattresses. That effort alone led to a 17-percent decrease in pressure ulcers.
In the fourth quarter of 2007, the system's hospital had implemented 94 percent of program measures, well above the state average. As a consequence, the hospital has had no stage 3 or 4 pressure ulcers..
Falls prevention:
Large hospital: Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital of St. Louis Park joined MHA's SAFE from FALLS initiative, adding to similar efforts it had begun on its own the year before that.
At the start of SAFE from FALLS, the facility had put in place only 39 percent of the program's "road map" measures. But only a few months later, caregivers' work showed: The hospital's road map implementation rate climbed to 82 percent.
Team members say exchanging ideas with other Minnesota hospitals was important. Through conference calls, MHA meetings and other resources, the hospital shared its knowledge while also gleaning tips from peers.
Small hospital: LifeCare Medical Center of Roseau educated all departments within its organization to bring its falls from 6.5 per 1,000 patient-days to 4.2. To get there, it boosted its SAFE from FALLS implementation rate from 80 percent to 98 percent. And it willingly shared the entire program with a hospital that couldn't participate.
The hospital's director of quality and risk management had this to say: "We believe in the power of providing recognition and rewards ... Each month, some form of written education based on the findings of our falls-prevention chart audits is designed for nursing. We have included either individual rewards for "stars," or tied the education to a drawing for a prize."
She also shared the credit for the hospital's success: "Our program would not have been implemented nearly as quickly or have been as successful without the willingness of other hospitals to share resources with us," she said..
Community Benefit Award
Large hospital: This new award recognizes organizations that are improving the lives of their neighbors in ways that go beyond traditional hospital care. St. Cloud Hospital was chosen for creating Clara's House, a place for young people with behavioral-health problems. Students receive individualized treatment from psychiatrists, social workers, and others. The 2004 facility is partly funded by the hospital.
Small Hospital: RiverView Healthcare Association's Celiac Sprue Support Group -- The auto-immune disorder leaves sufferers intolerant of gluten, which is found in bread, cookies and beer for example. No medications curb it. The Crookston hospital also offers cooking demonstrations and gives each newly diagnosed patient gluten-free products..
Innovation of the Year in Patient Care
Large hospital: Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota's "Nitrous Oxide Sedation Program: -- Children's is the first hospital in the United States to have specially trained registered nurses, under the direction of a physician, administer nitrous oxide to children for sedation. Similar use is common in Europe and Australia and by U.S. dentists. Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, is safer, milder and takes effect faster than other methods.
Small Hospital: Owatonna Hospital's "Cardiac Heart Failure Initiative" -- The effort included accountability tools that help ensure appropriate care for cardiac heart-failure patients. For example, a new form tracks -- by caregivers' signatures -- whether a measure was administered. Because of this and other changes, patients' 30-day readmission rates have dropped from 14 percent in 2006 to 0 percent in late 2007..
Associate Member of the Year
Memorial Blood Centers is a nonprofit that works closely with hospitals by offering blood products and biomedical services. The organization also sponsors events at MHA conferences and volunteers staff as speakers.
Stephen Rogness Distinguished Service
This award -- MHA's highest honor -- goes to Steven Kleinglass, medical center director of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis. Under Kleinglass' leadership, the Minneapolis VA has become a flagship U.S. hospital that health-care leaders from around the globe have visited to study. The organization's polytrauma center and new spinal cord center are partly the result of years of advocacy by Kleinglass. He also was chosen for his active role in numerous health-care and community groups, such as MHA's board.
Public Achievement Award
DFL Sen. Ann Lynch of Rochester -- This freshman state senator strongly supported higher medical assistance rates and funding for hospitals. She also worked to help members of the Senate understand the amount of community benefits hospitals provide.
Trustee of the Year
Connie Weinman of Fairview Health Services of Minneapolis -- Weinman has exhibited thoughtful, dynamic leadership for hospitals and health care for a quarter century. She has provided sound guidance though successive hospital mergers, all while keeping a close eye on needs in the community and trends in the industry. Her understanding of the importance of aligning academic and community medicine ... improves the health of our state, ensuring the viability of the medical breakthroughs possible at a leading research university hospital.
Volunteer of the Year
Dori Johnson of Hutchinson Area Health Care -- An entire half-century ago, Johnson spearheaded efforts to create the auxiliary and volunteer service at the hospital. Since then, she has logged countless hours overseeing the thrift shop, coffee shop, gift shop and information desk. President for 25 years, she coordinates 300 volunteers and 500 auxilians who raise an impressive $50,000 per year for the hospital.
Caregiver of the Year
Dr. Brian Livermore of North Country Health Services in Bemidji -- In the 25-plus years that Livermore has practiced medicine, he has reached every quality or leadership benchmark one could name. For example, in 2004 his clinic rated No. 1 in the nation in patient satisfaction. Livermore was also instrumental in developing the electronic medical record system that links the hospital to the clinic. Last month, 500 attended the retirement party for "Doctor Duck" -- so named because he'd don a Donald Duck hat and persona to calm young patients.
Spirit of Advocacy Award
Richard Pettingill, president and CEO of Allina Hospitals & Clinics of Minneapolis -- Pettingill successfully led a community coalition to pass the Freedom to Breathe Act, which made all Minnesota workplaces smoke-free in 2007. He also marshaled his health system's forces to work on behalf of the measure. Also, Pettingill's system has made a significant commitment to fighting childhood obesity and promoting heart-safe communities. Lastly, he co-founded the Minnesota Health Information Exchange to enhance the interoperability of Minnesota's electronic medical records.
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