VHA Inc., a national healthcare alliance, has given Rowan Regional Medical Center a 2008 VHA Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence, honoring the hospital for meeting or exceeding national performance standards for clinical care in specific areas from the third quarter of 2006 to the second quarter of 2007.
The hospital was honored at VHAís Leadership Conference in Philadelphia on May 4.
Rowan Regional Medical Center won the award for its efforts in prevention of surgical infections, particularly for its prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia in patients in the intensive care unit.
ěThis award validates the dedicated focus of our clinical staff and physicians in pursuing excellence in the care provided to our intensive care patients,î said Chuck Elliott, Chief Executive Officer of Rowan Regional Medical Center.
ěIntensive care patients are extremely vulnerable to infections,î said Trent Haywood, M.D., J.D., chief medical officer at VHA. ěRowan Regional Medical Center has achieved what was once thought of as unattainable ń zero cases of VAP over a long period of time. Thatís quite an accomplishment.î
Rowan Regional Medical Center has gone 29 months without an incident of ventilator-associated pneumonia, which leads the region. Patients in the ICU are often sicker than other patients, and therefore more susceptible to developing complications such as ventilator-associated pneumonia. Providing better care to these patients can reduce the likelihood for complications that could lengthen hospital stays, or even increase morbidity for ICU patients.
VHA serves more than 1,400 not-for-profit hospitals and more than 21,000 non-acute healthcare organizations worldwide. VHA tracked hospital performance from one quarter over the next and only recognized hospitals that continued to show improvement each quarter, or whose average scores across these measures put the hospital at the top of the nation. Just 49 VHA-member hospitals were recognized for efforts to eliminate or reduce the risk of ICU patients developing ventilator-associated pneumonia.
Rowan Regional Medical Center, a Novant Health facility, is a private, not-for-profit acute care hospital in Salisbury that has more than 165 active physicians representing more than 35 medical specialties.