LifePoint Health, of which St. Francis Hospital is a part, has been named the recipient of the 2017 John M. Eisenberg Award for Innovation in Patient Safety at the Local Level. Presented annually by The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum, the prestigious Eisenberg Awards acknowledge major achievements in healthcare quality and patient safety.
 
The first investor-owned health system to earn an Eisenberg Award, LifePoint is being recognized for its National Quality Program, a structured process for ensuring consistent, high standards of quality and patient safety. Created in partnership with Duke University Health System, this program has led to significant enhancements across the LifePoint network, including a more than 60 percent improvement in aggregate patient safety. St. Francis is enrolled and actively participating in this program.
 
“We are so proud to be part of an organization like LifePoint that is deeply committed to providing high quality care and ensuring the safety of all patients,” said Dan Jones, chief executive officer of St. Francis. “Through the National Quality Program, our team has worked closely with Duke and LifePoint quality coaches to further strengthen our culture of safety, continuously work to improve care and enhance the patient experience for those we serve.”
 
The LifePoint National Quality Program is a data-driven program implemented in LifePoint’s facilities across the nation. Rooted in patient-centeredness, the program is focused on leadership that empowers people, proven systems of performance improvement, and a culture of safety. This initiative has helped create a highly reliable culture of safety and drive enhancements across the LifePoint system, including a 62 percent improvement in aggregate patient safety compared to the company’s 2010 baseline and 12 months of zero central-line infections at 73 percent of its hospitals. Additionally, from 2010 to 2017, hospital-acquired infections at LifePoint hospitals’ decreased by 78 percent for urinary tract infections, 58 percent for sepsis infection, and 73 percent for pneumonia.
 
“The LifePoint National Quality Program has established at the hospital and system level an ongoing, measurable approach to driving sustainable improvements in patient safety, quality and patient experience,” said Rusty Holman, MD, chief medical officer for LifePoint Health. “Because of the diverse hospitals within the LifePoint system, this program offers many lessons for how healthcare facilities of all types and sizes serving a variety of patient populations can operationalize quality, create a national learning laboratory, and engineer a sustainable culture of safety.”