HARRIS HEALTH WINS BIG HERE’S HOW WE ALL BENEFIT
When a health crisis strikes, you want to know you’re getting the absolute best care regardless of your income, where you live or whether you have insurance or not. Harris Health, a leading public health system that includes three hospitals and 45 outpatient care locations, focuses on excellence in all areas—its people, its facilities and its clinical outcomes. Think of Harris Health as the overachiever you knew in school that always got straight A’s and was voted “Most Likely to Succeed.” That’s who you want on your team. As it continues its path up the honor roll, Harris Health aims to be the premier community-focused academic medical center in the nation. That sounds like a tall order, but the health system is already on its way. “The awards we’ve received in the past year validate we’re the best in class,” says Harris Health CEO George Masi. To date, the American Heart Association (AHA) and other organizations have recognized Harris Health for excellence in cardiac, stroke, cancer and neonatal care, as well as overall patient care and quality management.
A HOSPITAL WITH HEART
In 2017, the AHA awarded Ben Taub Hospital the Mission: Lifeline® Gold Plus Receiving Center award for the third year in a row. This means Ben Taub provides consistent A-plus care for severe heart attack patients. Heart patients transported to Ben Taub receive some of the speediest, most effective care in the country. The hospital is also one of only 25 percent of United States hospitals to offer percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a minimally invasive surgical procedure that quickly unclogs blood vessels.
A TOP TIER STROKE HOSPITAL
AHA further recognized Ben Taub Hospital with the Get with the Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus-Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Award. That’s a mouthful! What does it mean? It means Houston has one of the nation’s top hospitals for stroke procedures and treatment. Ben Taub has equipment and expertise to get patients from the door to the latest, most preferred treatments in about 45 minutes. That’s half the national standard. And it can mean the difference between life and death or severe disability. As Harris Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Parikshet Babber says, Ben Taub had to meet high benchmarks for two consecutive 12-month periods to be considered for the award. They nailed it. To achieve honor roll status, Ben Taub had to treat stroke patients in record time—75 percent or more of Ben Taub’s stroke patients received clot-busting drugs or some other life-saving treatment within an hour of entering the building. Fifty percent or more were treated within 45 minutes. “That response rate is phenomenal,” says Babber. “They’re getting a CT scan done and receiving medication in less than an hour.”
COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
This year, Harris Health received national accreditation from DNV Healthcare, the only hospital accreditation program approved by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that integrates the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System with the Medicare Conditions of Participation. The ISO 9001 accreditation program evaluates hospitals on “policies, procedures and processes” to make sure they adhere to international regulatory standards, Babber says. For example, if an infant formula manufacturer has an ISO 9001 certification, most likely you’ll always get the same concentration of formula with the right ingredients in the right amount. In a hospital system, ISO 9001 means the system implements and follows certain policies and procedures on important issues and reevaluates them regularly. “We put ourselves through the rigors of international quality standards,” says Babber.
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY, PATIENT CENTERED CARE
The awards and accreditations given to Harris Health over the past year don’t stop there. The CEO Roundtable on Cancer presented Harris Health with the CEO Gold Standard for cancer care. It received the award because its hospitals and clinics promote healthy lifestyle choices, encourage early detection through cancer screenings and ensure access to quality treatment for its 8,000-plus employees. Harris Health is the first Houston healthcare system to achieve the Physician Practice Connections-Patient-Centered Medical Home designation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. “A Certified Medical Home gives the assurance that you, the patient, are being cared for in a state-of-the-art facility with the most modern care available anywhere,” says Masi. “All activities support comprehensive primary care.” For the seventh year in a row, the Harris Health system earned the “Most Wired” recognition in a study conducted by the American Hospital Association’s Health Forum and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives. Harris Health’s streamlined Electronic Health Records (EHR) system, which provides easy access to records no matter where patients receive care, got the association’s attention. “Medical data can be pulled up on screen in any one of our 48 facilities,” says Masi. “Any Harris Health physician has access to information in real time, 24/7. That’s a huge advantage to the patient.” This year, the American Nurses Credentialing Center redesignated Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital’s nursing department as a Pathway to Excellence® hospital. The award indicates nurses who pursue a career with Harris Health enter a work environment where they can thrive. The Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX), a worldwide healthcare technology company, named Harris Health one of the “Best 50” healthcare providers in the U.S. and Canada for the second consecutive year. Harris County’s healthcare “safety net” doesn’t have to work overtime to deliver top-tier care. But it does. And the community reaps the benefits. “In all our Centers of Excellence, the care we provide is what’s considered best in class,” says Masi. “From the trauma programs at Ben Taub and LBJ to our stroke and cancer centers, the care that’s provided is the best you’ll find anywhere in the world.”