NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--HealthTrust today awarded two member organizations, Centura Health and Boston Medical Center, with Innovation Grants valued at $50,000 each to improve healthcare delivery through new, scalable ideas that can be adopted by other HealthTrust members.
Centura Health, an integrated health care delivery network consisting of 17 hospitals in Colorado and western Kansas, will apply the Innovation Grant to expand a virtual pharmacy service that links patients and pharmacists via videoconferencing. The technology connects pharmacists to high-risk patients through live video visits and enables pharmacists to make recommendations to the patient’s primary care provider via the patient’s electronic health record.
“Our goal is to connect patients directly with a pharmacist who can provide comprehensive medication management that complements the care of the provider, offering highly-coordinated care that promotes positive outcomes and gets our patients back to the lives they love, faster,” said Clint Hinman, PharmD, MPH, vice president of pharmacy for Centura Health. “This grant will enable us to expand our scope to reach more patients where they already are, and creates a referral process to more conveniently and efficiently connect patients with this vital service.”
Based on its successful implementation of a High Performance Team (HPT) in Vascular Surgery, Boston Medical Center (BMC) will apply its Innovation Grant to create a network of HPTs throughout the institution to reduce medical errors and post-operative complications. BMC, a 514-bed academic medical center for infants, children, teens and adults, will initially implement three dominant groups of HPTs in the Operating Room. These specialties include:
- Vascular, Cardiac, Thoracic and Transplant Surgery
- Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, and Pediatric Surgery
- Minimally Invasive Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, and Surgical Oncology
After establishing teams in these specialties, BMC will initiate additional HPTs in the OR to increase operational efficiency, improve quality, decrease costs, and enhance satisfaction among both patients and staff by further supporting a culture of safety. “Our ultimate goal is to replicate the HPT model in all surgery specialties at Boston Medical Center,” said David McAneny, MD, chief surgical officer at Boston Medical Center. “We recognize that communication and teamwork are essential to the success of the high performance teams, and this grant will allow us to further cultivate a culture of safety that promotes patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction and relational coordination.”
HealthTrust established the Innovation Grant program in 2014 to sponsor and reward new, scalable ideas for advancing healthcare by improving care delivery, health outcomes, cost savings, operational efficiency and population health. The awards consist of a $25,000 cash grant along with $25,000 in HealthTrust service line expertise to support the replication of best practices across the membership.
“We applaud this year’s Innovation Grant recipients for their vision to improve quality, increase operational efficiency, decrease costs and enhance satisfaction among both patients and staff in ways that can be replicated at other member facilities,” said John J. Young, MD, MBA, CPE, FACHE, chief medical officer for HealthTrust. “Centura Health is a great example of providers deploying technology to dispense patient education on medications, vaccinations and lab work while utilizing the EHR for physician messaging to support continuity of care and mitigating hospital admissions. Boston Medical Center’s deployment of multi-disciplinary High Performance Teams demonstrates how collaboration in the OR can improve value and enhance patient safety. We are proud to sponsor these innovative thinkers and share their best practices among the HealthTrust membership.”
About HealthTrust
HealthTrust (Healthtrust Purchasing Group, L.P.) is committed to strengthening provider performance and clinical excellence through an aligned membership model and the delivery of total spend management advisory solutions that leverage operator experience, scale and innovation. Headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., HealthTrust (www.healthtrustpg.com) serves over 1,600 hospitals and health systems, and more than 40,000 other member locations including ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices, long-term care and alternate care sites. On Twitter @healthtrustpg.
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