Frank: ‘We have much to be thankful for at Penn State Health St. Joseph’

St. Joseph Interim President Joe Frank emailed employees Tuesday with a message to reflect on their successes amid the pandemic:

As we look ahead to the holiday season, we will be challenged to find the silver lining as the pandemic reminds us that our lives and work continue to be disrupted. However, from my perspective, we have much to be thankful for at Penn State Health St. Joseph.

In early August, St. Joseph Medical Center earned recertification as a Primary Stroke Center and earned renewal of its Disease Specific Care Certification for Advanced Heart Failure following two consecutive surveys by The Joint Commission July 23 and 24. Not only does this confirm that we are committed to providing outcome-oriented, exceptional stroke care to the community, but it also highlights the exceptional heart failure care we provide.

In the same month, we also earned the American College of Cardiology’s 2020 Chest Pain – MI Registry Silver Performance Achievement Award and were featured in the special U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospitals” guidebook as a result. The award recognizes our commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients and signifies that we have reached an aggressive goal of treating these patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.

In the 2019 Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council Hospital Performance Report, St. Joseph Medical Center earned a “significantly lower than expected” statistical rating for Mortality from Stroke, Readmissions from Abnormal Heartbeat and Readmissions from Respiratory Failure, further underscoring our commitment to high-quality care. We also received the highest awards for stroke care and advanced heart failure care from the American Stroke Association and the American Heart Association for 2020:

• Get With The Guidelines – Stroke GOLD PLUS with Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll
• Get With The Guidelines – Stroke GOLD PLUS Performance Achievement
• Get With The Guidelines – Heart Failure GOLD PLUS Quality Achievement Award
• Mission: Lifeline – Heart Attack Receiving Center – GOLD

In addition to these achievements, we have made significant improvement during the first quarter of the fiscal year in the three hospital-acquired infections we track as part of our Organizational Goals for Quality: Central Line-Associated Blood Stream Infections (CLABSI), Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) and Clostridium Difficile (C.Diff). Thanks to improvements in how we protect IV access points and insertion sites, the improvements in our CLABSI numbers were considerable.

In another nod to staff efforts to improve care and how we deliver it, our senior leadership team has begun rounding throughout all work areas, departments and satellite locations, including during off shifts and weekends. Their intent: to be available to staff, to connect and listen to concerns and ideas and to share in celebrations, recognitions and positivity.

The idea for the rounding grew out of the capstone project, “Leadership Rounding for Outcomes, A Plan to Change the Experience,” that a five-member cohort completed as part of Penn State Health’s 2019 Emerging Leaders Development Program. Participating in that cohort were St. Joseph staff members Cindy Hinsey, Nicole Rhoads, Osiris Martinez Urquilla, Cassandra Lingle and Lori McClure. It is due to their efforts that this project has become a reality.

Now that rounding is underway, the next step is to form a Staff Engagement Council that will help carry the findings forward. This 15-plus-member task force will meet monthly to review any concerns the team has discovered and support the development of appropriate action plans. They also will be tasked with discussing those actions with the impacted work areas, bringing the communication loop full circle.

As we head into the winter and the number of COVID-19 infections continues to rise, I hope you take comfort in all that we have achieved through your dedication and hard work. By continuing to support each other and focusing on delivering safe care that protects our patients and each other, we will emerge on the other side of the pandemic in a positive position, having solidified our standing within the Berks community as a health care provider of choice.

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