5th Annual CHS Pinnacle Awards Presented

Once again, St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center has won the Catholic Health Services (CHS) Pinnacle Award for Quality & Patient Safety in the acute care category. The hospital’s “Cracking the Code to Decrease Sepsis Mortality” project took top honors among a field of strong contenders. In the continuing care category, CHS’s three skilled nursing facilities—Good Samaritan Nursing Home, Our Lady of Consolation Nursing & Rehabilitative Care Center and St. Catherine of Siena Nursing & Rehabilitation Care Center—earned the CHS Pinnacle Award for their collaborative “Optimizing the Diagnosis and Treatment of Infections With Appropriate Antibiotic Usage” initiative.

Now in its fifth year, the CHS Pinnacle Award is presented annually at a conference held at the DeMatteis Center in Greenvale. It is modeled after the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS) Pinnacle Award and acknowledges those playing a leading role in promoting improvements in health care delivery. Numerous clinical teams from across CHS submitted projects for consideration, with a total of 25 represented at the event, with poster displays illustrating the successful outcomes achieved.

“This event is our way of saluting outstanding efforts in support of our two highest priorities: quality and patient safety,” commented CHS's Executive Vice President & Chief Clinical Officer Patrick M. O’Shaughnessy, DO, MBA, MS-PopH, FACEP, CHCQM. “By undertaking these initiatives, every one of the nominees has helped to elevate the culture of excellence across all services.”

CHS President & CEO Alan D. Guerci, MD, welcomed attendees in the morning, after which Dr. O’Shaughnessy introduced guest speaker John Foley, former lead solo pilot of the U.S. Navy’s famed Blue Angels and founder of the Glad to Be Here® Foundation. Mr. Foley inspired conference participants with his discussion of the importance of teamwork and trust to achieve excellence. These qualities were clearly evident in the successful outcomes achieved by all participants. The finalists for the CHS Pinnacle Award were St. Charles Hospital for “Reducing Immediate Use Steam Sterilization While Increasing Production” (acute) and St. Catherine of Siena Nursing & Rehabilitation Care Center for “Successful Alternatives to Psychoactive Medication Management of Resident Behaviors” (continuing care).

In addition to the CHS Pinnacle Awards, several specialty awards were presented at the event. St. Joseph Hospital was honored for the Best Culture of Safety Improvement Initiative, “The Trickle Down Effect of Employee Engagement and Psychological Safety on Harm Reduction”. The system-wide “Risk Avoidance Through Safe Patient Mobility” won in the Best Employee Safety Engagement Initiative category. Recognition for the Best Collaboration to Address a Public Health Issue was presented to the DSRIP team, Behavioral Health, Emergency Medicine and project partners. CHS Physician Partners Medical Group’s “Implementation of a Diabetes Self-Management Program in the Ambulatory Setting” was the winner in the Best Population Health Impact category. Finally, St. Charles Hospital’s Rosemary Jackson, RN, and the hospital’s maternity team were recognized in the Patient Safety Hero Award category.

The 2019 CHS Pinnacle Award for Quality & Patient Safety was earned once again in the acute care category by St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center (above) and collectively by Our Lady of Consolation, Good Samaritan and St. Catherine skilled nursing facilities for the continuing care category (right).