The Illinois Health and Hospital Association awarded Winfield, Ill.-based Central DuPage Hospital and Wheaton, Ill.-based Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital the 2018 Quality Excellence Achievement Award in Partnership for their efforts in advancing patient care and safety.
The hospitals, both part of Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine, were honored for their joint initiative to improve acute care stroke readmissions and acute stroke transfers.
A national panel of quality experts selected the initiative out of 91 projects submitted by 57 hospitals and health systems statewide for the 2018 IHA Quality Excellence Achievement Awards.
The project team from Central DuPage Hospital and Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital analyzed data and developed a plan to reduce acute care stroke readmissions. The project successfully standardized communication between both facilities, developed a screening tool for high-risk patients, improved readmissions notifications between facilities and implemented a review protocol to identify future preventable readmissions.
Central DuPage Hospital reduced acute care stroke readmissions by 30 percent and Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital reduced acute stroke transfers by 25 percent through the project.
"This winning project is a wonderful collaboration between two of our facilities within Northwestern Medicine to ensure patients are receiving the highest quality care in the proper setting," Brian Lemon, president of Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital and Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital said in a news release emailed to Becker's.