Pursuing Perfect Healthcare: Hospitals to Describe How Raising Quality Bar Benefits Patients, Bottom Line

Manasquan, NJ (PRWEB) August 2, 2007

It is said that practice makes perfect, but if preliminary feedback from an international healthcare quality initiative means anything, "perfect" also makes good business practice. Two of 13 organizations that comprise the international Pursuing Perfection initiative will report on their progress during Pursuing Perfect Care: Improving Chronic Care Outcomes by Treating the Whole Patient, a 90-minute live audio conference from the Healthcare Intelligence Network (HIN) scheduled for August 22, 2007, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern. For conference details, please visit http://www.hin.com/cgi-local/link/news/pl.cgi?perfectcarepr

NEWS FACTS:

• The 90-minute live audio conference on August 22, 2007, will explain how perfect care processes are elevating quality to a business strategy and boosting patient safety, mortality and satisfaction levels for two healthcare organizations in the process. Presenting are McLeod Medical Center and Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC), two of 13 participants in the international Pursuing Perfection initiative backed by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and led by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).
• Scheduled Speakers: Donna Isgett, vice president for clinical effectiveness at McLeod Health, will describe the perfect care processes at McLeod, while Leanne Huminski, chief nursing officer, McLeod Medical Center, will provide the inside details on its medication management program, which has a goal of eliminating adverse drug events.

Also, Lenore Blank and Michele Gilbert, members of the HUMC heart failure team, will report on their team's perfect care processes that provide care across the continuum for heart failure patients from their acceptance into the program to their return home. They'll discuss their identification and stratification strategies, how they mentor and educate nurses serving these patients, the indicators and tools they use and how they've streamlined the discharge process and improved medication reconciliation.

• Conference Highlights: The key factors in developing perfect care processes; the impact on work flow; perfect care processes and results by disease state; and training and engagement of key staff.
• Target Audience: CEOs, CFOs, chief medical officers, chief nursing officers, medical directors, quality improvement executives, performance improvement executives, disease management directors, managers and coordinators, health plan executives, care management nurses, strategic planning directors and human resources executives.
• Audio Conference Formats: 90-minute live audio conference on August 22, 2007 includes a 20-minute Q&A; "On-Demand" rebroadcast available August 24, 2007; 90-minute recording on CD-ROM with printed transcript available September 12, 2007. For conference details, please visit http://www.hin.com/cgi-local/link/news/pl.cgi?perfectcarepr

Quotes attributable to Melanie Matthews, HIN Executive VP And COO:
"Pay for performance initiatives in healthcare abound, but early feedback from these two hospitals prove that targeting higher quality should be an essential component of an organization's business model, for both its fiscal health and the health and satisfaction of its patients. Healthcare organizations looking to raise their quality and performance ratings should look to the McLeod and HUMC models, as well as those of the other Pursuing Perfection participants."

Please contact Patricia Donovan to arrange an interview or to obtain additional quotes.

About the Healthcare Intelligence Network
HIN is the premier advisory service for executives seeking high-quality strategic information on the business of healthcare. For more information, contact the Healthcare Intelligence Network, PO Box 1442, Wall Township, NJ 07719-1442, (888) 446-3530, fax (732) 292-3073, e-mail info @ hin.com, or visit http://www.hin.com.

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