The Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care recently presented White County Medical Center with a Quality Innovator Award at the organization’s annual Quality Conference. WCMC was oneof only three hospitals to receive the distinguished honor. The QualityInnovator Award recognizes hospitals that demonstrate “improved outcomesfocused on better healthcare for individuals, better healthcare for communitiesand reduced costs through improvement.”
WCMC received the award for the success of the “ImprovingPatient Care from Admissions to Discharge and Beyond” model. The program,started in 2010, is an aggressive care transitions program that focused onlowering the hospital’s readmissions rate. After conducting research onrecently discharged patients, the WCMC Case Management and PerformanceImprovement Department established that patients needed more prompt access tomedical care following their hospitalization. Thus, a hospital-wide initiativewas established to obtain follow-up appointments within one week followingdischarge.
“Our hospital is committed to providing the best care for thepatients we serve,” said WCMC Director of Case Management and PerformanceImprovement Connie Taylor. “We are continuously looking for innovativestrategies to help our patients achieve their health goals. Partnering withAFMC to explore new approaches in enhancing patient care is one avenue thathelps us meet the needs of our community.”
Also, the team focused on patient education and created asystem of tools and videos to help patients with certain diagnoses betterunderstand their condition and how to best manage it at home. Finally, the WCMCPharmacy Department partnered with the UAMS and Harding UniversityColleges of Pharmacy toestablish a call center designed to ensure that patients understand theirmedications and have access to them when they go home. The call center ismaintained by pharmacy students from both colleges with the oversight ofpharmacist preceptors.
This is the fourth year in a row WCMC has received a QualityInnovator Award for improving healthcare in the community.
