Patient safety and delivering a high quality of care are major goals as St. Anthony Regional Hospital cares for patients. For the past two years, the hospital has been submitting data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid which indicate St. Anthony’s performance for three disease conditions – congestive heart failure, pneumonia, and myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Data reported by St. Anthony is measured against other hospitals in Iowa as well as in the nation. Using this tool, St. Anthony has been able to show improvement in the quality of care patients receive. Where performance was not considered to be at a desirable level for the patient, the hospital developed teams to look at the reasons for failing to meet the goal. Following the teamwork effort, changes in procedures, policies and performance were made that raised the standard of care.

The measures for performance have all been developed from the evidence-based research. As care of the patient is studied, standards of care are established showing that they produce the best result for the patient. Although each physician directs the care of his or her patient, following these standards that research have shown to be effective produce the best outcome.

One particular area for improvement was in administering the pneumococcal vaccine. When data collection first began, physicians rarely ordered the pneumococcal vaccine for the hospitalized patient. Often this was given in the doctor’s office, but many patients were being admitted with pneumonia who had not received the vaccine. When this was studied, the staff developed a specific questionnaire to determine whether the patient had received the vaccine and then developed a specific procedure to make sure the vaccine was administered. St. Anthony’s score went from 29% of the patients who qualified to 100%. 

“Our hospital and nursing home staff and physicians are committed to providing high quality, safe care to all who come to St. Anthony,” according to Gary Riedmann, President of St. Anthony Regional Hospital and Nursing Home. “We care for our patients that same way we would want to be cared for, or have our loved ones cared for, with courtesy, compassion and respect. We continually strive to exceed patient and community expectations.”

 

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