The University of California, San Diego Health System has been named to Becker’s Hospital Review’s “100 Hospitals with Great Neurosurgery and Spine Programs.” The selected hospitals were recognized for offering outstanding spine and neurological care, and were chosen based on nominations, clinical accolades, quality care and other spine and neurological proficiencies. They have also been recognized for excellence in this specialty by other reputable healthcare rating sources, including U.S. News & World Report, Health Grades and the American Nurses Credentialing Center. The neurosurgery program at UC San Diego has more than 30 neurosurgeons dedicated to the care of all types of brain and neurological disease, and was recognized by The Joint Commission in 2012 as one of the first facilities in the county to be certified as a Comprehensive Stroke Center . The complete list of the “100 Hospitals with Great Neurosurgery and Spine Programs” can be found on the Becker’s Hospital Review website.

Samuel W. French, MD, a principal investigator at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed) will receive the American Society for Investigative Pathology’s (ASIP’s) highest honor, the Gold-Headed Cane Award. The Gold-Headed Cane Award recognizes long-term contributions to pathology, including meritorious research, outstanding teaching, general excellence in the field and leadership in pathology. Nominations for the award require multiple letters of recommendation and the candidate’s curriculum vitae including biography. Dr. French, who has been affiliated with Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and LA BioMed for more than twenty years, will be awarded a mahogany cane topped with a 14 karat gold head and engraved band at ASIP’s Annual Meeting in April.

Thousands of people followed live on social media as a surgical team at Orlando Health performed Florida’s first ever vascularized lymph node transfer (VLNTx). The procedure, which was performed on a breast cancer patient who developed a blockage in the lymphatic vessels(lymphedema) in her right arm following breast surgery and radiation, transfers lymph nodes from one area of the body to another affected by lymphedema. The VLNTx is expected to reduce the patient’s symptoms such as swelling and relieve pain and discomfort, which will allow them to regain use of their arms and legs and resume daily activities. The patient has been living with lymphedema for 18 months. According to Orlando Health, more than 7,000 people saw pictures and posts from the surgery via Facebook, more than 1200 people read the online article about the surgery at accordingtowinnie.com, and more than 200 people followed the surgery live via the blog.

NAPH members Harborview Medical Center, Jackson Health System, Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System, Shands HealthCare, Shands Jacksonville, University of California, University of Colorado Hospital and Virginia Commonwealth University Health System were selected by GHX as eight of the “best 50” healthcare provider organizations. The award recipients, selected from a pool of more than 4,000 hospitals in the U.S. and Canada connected to the GHX electronic trading exchange, were honored for their work in improving operation performance and driving down costs through supply chain automatic. Top performers were identified on a number of key metrics, including purchasing and invoice volume, exception rates, exchange utilization and trading partner connections. GHX then identified the 50 healthcare organizations that scored the highest across all of these categories for 2012.

Hurley Medical Center received designation as a Blue Distinction Center in knee and hip replacement. The Blue Distinction Centers for Specialty Care program, awarded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies, is a national designation to recognize medical facilities that have demonstrated expertise in delivering quality specialty care. Selection criteria used to evaluate facilities include general quality and safety metrics as well as program specific metrics. Research indicates that the newly designated Blue Distinction Centers demonstrate better quality and improved outcomes for patients, with lower complication and readmissions rates than their peers.

Hospitals throughout the LSU Health Care Services Division (HCSD) were recognized for their achievements at the sixteenth annual LSU Health Care Effectiveness Forum, “LSU Health: Building Blocks for the Future. Among the awards was the TRRRAQSSS Award presented to Lallie Kemp Regional Medical Center for the excellent results of its hospital improvement project “Environmental Services/Hospital Cleanliness.” LKRMC, which received the highest Avatar score of all LSU HCSD hospitals for patient satisfaction related to hospital cleanliness, is also in the top 15 percent of hospitals in the nation for this category. LKRMC’s project ensures proper training in cleaning techniques, including infection prevention and control procedures for new and existing employees. The project has kept LKRMC in compliance with standards of the Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The full list of winners from the LSU Health Care Effectiveness Forum can be found on LSU Health’s website.

Parkland Health & Hospital System (PHHS) ranked 15th on Security magazine’s “2012 Security 500” list, which recognizes organizations worldwide for security practices. Parkland is one of 80 hospitals and medical centers nationwide named to the list. PHHS has its own fully operational police department, the Parkland Police Department, which is comprised of over 90 sworn and non-sworn officers, communications officers, and civilian employees, includes investigations, patrol, parking, communication and a crime prevention unit. Members of the Parkland Police Department continually conduct training programs for employees, including workplace violence prevention, infant protection, active shooter and security awareness training. This is the third time the Parkland Police Department has received recognition from Security magazine for its efforts in creating a safe and secure environment for patients, visitors and staff.

NAPH members UC San Diego and Memorial Hospital West received the Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals award. Truven Health Analytics’ annual Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals study evaluates hospital in 10 areas: mortality; medical complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; and post-discharge mortality and readmission rates for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia. Truven Health’s researchers evaluated more than 2,900 short-term, acute-care, non-federal hospitals, and used public information including Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare website. UC San Diego ranked in the “Major Teaching Hospital” category, and Memorial Hospital West in the “Large Community Hospitals" category.

Lee Memorial Hospital is one of Healthgrades’ America’s 100 Best Hospitals 2013. Healthgrades identifies the list of America’s Best Hospitals by first reviewing hospitals who make up their list of Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence (DHA-CE), or the top 5% of hospitals in the nation. The DHA-CE list recognizes performance over at least 19 of 27 different conditions and procedures. After each condition or procedure is evaluated and stratified into a 5-star, 3-star, or 1-star category Healthgrades calculates the average ratings for each hospital. In 2013, 262 hospitals with the highest average rating were recognized as DHA-CE. These hospitals were eligible for consideration for the America’s Best Hospital designation. Hospitals that achieve clinical excellence consistently over time are recognized as Healthgrades’ America’s Best Hospitals 2013. Lee Memorial’s ranking in America’s 100 Best Hospitals 2013 means that it was among the top 2 percent of hospitals in the nation for exhibiting clinical excellence for at least four consecutive years.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (UTHSCT) is one of the top 58 non-specialty, acute-care hospitals with the highest percentage of patients who rated their hospital a nine or 10 on a scale of zero-to-10 in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. 87 percent of patients at UTHSCT rated the hospital a nine or 10 in the survey. The Becker’s Hospital Review list was based on HCAHPS survey results reported in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Hospital Compare database. Results cover the period between April 2011 and March 2012.

The chief information officer at the University of Utah Health Care, Salt Lake City, will receive the 2012 John E. Gall, Jr. CIO of the Year Award. James Turnbull will receive the award at the 2013 Annual HIMSS Conference and Exhibition on March 5. The CIO of the Year Award recognizes health care IT executives who have made significant contributions to their organization and demonstrated innovative leadership through effective use of technology. Turnbull has more than 37 years of experience in the health care industry in Canada and the United States. His accomplishments include the deployment of electronic health records and installation of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) at three different health systems.

Bellevue Hospital, part of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, will partner with the New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the Child Study Center at NYU Langone Medical Center in an effort to improve trauma services for youth in New York City’s child welfare and juvenile justice systems. As part of this effort, Bellevue, ACS and the Child Study Center have been awarded grants totaling more than $7 million by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Administration on Children, Youth and Families. All of the grants will fund initiatives aimed at improving trauma care for children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Among the grants received is a $1.6 million grant to Bellevue Hospital Center and ACS to provide trauma-focused care at two ACS juvenile detention facilities. Bellevue will establish mental health screening informed by trauma, evidence-based skills groups to reduce trauma-associated problems, and will build partnerships with systems associated with juvenile detention to increase trauma responsiveness in those areas.

The University of Utah Health Care was one of five hospitals to win the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Transitions to Better Care video contest. The contest, launched in fall 2012, sought compelling stories about hospitals’ efforts to improve care transitions and reduce avoidable readmissions. The video contest is a part of Care About Your Care, a national effort to highlight ways to improve care transitions, reduce avoidable readmissions and elevate the overall quality of care. The University of Utah Health Care’s video highlights the hospital’s Health Care Transitions Program, which developed the transition navigator role to provide follow-through for complex patients after they have been discharged from the hospital. The transition navigator bridges the gap between the hospital and primary care teams to ensure continuity of care. The University of Utah Health Care’s video and the four other winning videos can be viewed online.

Theodore Colton, MD, chairman emeritus and professor at the Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) and co-investigator on several ongoing trials at Boston Medical Center received the 2012 Public Health Leadership Award from the Friends of Brookline Public Health. Colton received the award for his many contributions to the issue of valid and ethical scientific research. Colton has more than 50 years of experience in biostatistics and epidemiologic collaboration and consultation with health professionals, has served as chairman of the BUSPH Epidemiology and Biostatistics and continues to work as an educator of clinicians and other medical researchers.

Four NAPH member individuals made the Becker’s Hospital Review list of “100 Hospital and Health System CMOs to Know.” Ralph R. Clark, MD, Vice President of Clinical Activities and CMO of Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Timothy Flynn, MD, CMO of Shands at the University of Florida, Hagop Mekhjian, MD, CMO of The Ohio State University Health System and Ohio State University Hospital, and Allan D. Siefkin, MD, CMO of University of California Davis Medical Center were named to the list. Those selected were chosen based on their experience in overseeing medical and quality affairs at their organizations, and have demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement in safety and quality.

The dialysis unit at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) has been recognized for high quality patient care by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) End-Stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Program. In data collected between June 2011 and May 2012, the dialysis unit scored an overall score of 30 out of 30. CMS rated ARMC on quality measures including how well the facility keeps red blood cell counts at an acceptable level (anemia management), and how well the facility cleans the blood during a dialysis treatment (dialysis adequacy). ARMC scored 10 out of a possible 10 points on these quality measures, and exceeded the national average in dialysis adequacy.