Quality Pillar Winners

Individual

Dr. Julie Phillips, Sharp Grossmont Hospital

Focused on both the quality and experience of care, Dr. Phillips provided oversight of the development and implementation of the Emergency Department Transformation Project.  Patients being discharged from the ED experienced a shortened door-to-provider time, provider-to-disposition decision time and ED length of stay.   She also led the Sepsis Recognition and Treatment Initiative, providing more appropriate triage and rapid care to the most severely ill patients, reducing sepsis mortality 19 percent.

Team

Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center

The Antimicrobial Stewardship Program was established jointly by the Pharmacy Department and Infectious Disease service. The program involves daily rounds, tracking of antibiotic usage and appropriate usage policies and guidelines. By the end of 2017, antibiotic use was down, and improvement was seen in antibiotic resistance rates, C. difficile infections and sepsis mortality, all results that contributed to an A rating for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group in April 2018.

Department

Labor and Delivery, Sharp Grossmont Hospital

This department’s Unit Practice Council organized a multidisciplinary task force to reduce the risk of morbidity and mortality in pregnancy by preventing C-sections in first-time mothers,.  The task force incorporated evidence-based guidelines and created checklists and a standardized approach to the labor management of patients with Category II Fetal Heart Rate tracings.   The team reduced the C-section rate in first-time mothers to 20 percent — a level below the Healthy People 2020 benchmark of 23.9 percent.