Lakeside Continues to Win Awards for Quality...
Lakeside Memorial Hospital was recently honored with a Pinnacle Award for its efforts in “Creating a Culture of Sustainable Quality in a Community Hospital” by the Hospital Association of New York (HANYS). Out of 137 state wide entries, Lakeside was honored for its outstanding improvement in quality and patient safety. The goals of our effort were to incorporate sustainable process improvement plans into our efforts to contribute to the 100K and 5M lives initiatives of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), a national program. We wanted to put measurable, sustainable processes into place to constantly monitor/improve patient care and CMS (Medicare) quality indicators.
Lakeside partnered with Eastman Kodak Company to implement training for its managers in Lean ‘manufacturing’. “It is amazing how Lean principles apply to every setting, including health care,” indicates Michael Stapleton, Lakeside Hospital’s Chief Operating Officer. “Our innovation centered on a team effort, including the creation of shared dashboards and accountability. Visibility of the data is necessary for continuous improvement. Visual aids on the walls of many departments show staff where our patient safety and quality stand. Everyone sees them, everyday,” continues Stapleton. Last year, Lakeside won a national Premier award for it care for mothers and babies. “The improvement is wonderful; we are seeing that our quality is as good as and often better than most New York hospitals. This is gratifying for our staff who work so hard to make sure each patient’s experience is what they would want for their own family members. Families can trust our care,” Stapleton concludes.
