Jefferson Regional is the only hospital in Pennsylvania to earn national recognition from Premier in any of the five clinical areas considered for the 2005 Premier Award for Quality. Clinical areas include total joint replacement of the hip and/or knee, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), heart failure (HF), community acquired pneumonia (CAP) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

Jefferson Regional Medical Center earned the quality award for its low complication and mortality rates, shorter length of hospital stay and other monitored clinical processes. Premier measurements show that Jefferson Regional Medical Center is the best non-teaching hospital with a full interventional cardiology program and open-heart backup in the nation for Coronary Artery Bypass Graft.

Jefferson Regional President and CEO Thomas P. Timcho says the credit for this achievement belongs to every employee, the board of directors and the medical staff who share the common cause of bringing medical excellence closer to home for residents of Jefferson Hills, the South Hills and surrounding communities.

“We all own a piece of the collective effort to improve patient care each and every day,” Timcho says. “The Premier Award for Quality is evidence of our success in developing relationships across the organization with the common purpose of caring for each patient as if she, or he, is a member of our own family,” adds Timcho.

“Better healthcare through better use of information and resources is what distinguishes Premier Award for Quality winners from their peers,” says Stephanie Alexander, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Premier Healthcare Informatics. “These hospitals are leading the industry using best practices and evidence-based decision-making to develop more efficient ways to deliver excellent patient care.”

On behalf of all physicians and employees, Jefferson Regional Vice President Judy M. Hall accepted the award at the 2005 Premier Annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas on May 18. “We boast some of the most skilled cardiologists and surgeons in western Pennsylvania,” says Hall. “Dr. Sang Park of the Park Cardiothoracic and Vascular Institute is probably the most senior practicing open-heart surgeon in the area. He is responsible for training not only most of the open-heart surgeons in Pittsburgh, but many across the country.”

Dr. Sang Park, medical director cardiovascular surgical services at Jefferson Regional, says the surgical quality and complexity of cases at Jefferson Regional are comparable to anywhere else in the country. With increasing frequency, patients labeled inoperable and high-risk, turned away by other hospitals, come to Jefferson Regional Medical Center.

Two of Dr. Park’s protégé’s are his sons, Dr. Chong Park and Dr. Kyung Park, both of whom not only contribute to the quality of open-heart surgery at Jefferson Regional, but put Jefferson on the map for extraordinary surgical procedures.

For instance, Dr. Chong Park successfully completed an extremely complex case implanted a Hemashield Platinum Graft for the aortic arch for a Jefferson Regional patient recently. He described the complexity of this procedure, comparing it to general bypass, saying that the aortic arch graft “makes bypass seem like kindergarten.” If not for the skills of Dr. Chong Park, this patient would only be able to acquire such a procedure by flying to facilities in Texas, or Ohio. Dr. Chong Park had the graft flown to Pittsburgh and performed the procedure at Jefferson instead.

In another case, an 85-year old patient was brought to Jefferson’s emergency room after suffering a fall. According to Dr. Venkat Machiraju of the RAJ Cardiovascular Association, also affiliated with Jefferson Regional, the cause of the fall was actually related to the condition of the patient’s heart. This patient’s aortic valve had calcified over time and was damaged to the point where the heart was not pumping blood. The lack of blood flow is what led to the fall.

Replacement of a heart valve requires an incision that runs the length of the sternum, followed by the need to cut through the bone to open the rib cage. This traditional procedure is very traumatic, particularly for older patients. For this patient, Dr. Machiraju made an incision, about two-inches long, above the area where the valve was located. “I only needed to cut through the area that gives us access to the valve itself. This greatly reduces the trauma to the patient, shortens the time required on a breathing machine and shortens the overall recovery time.”

“Our surgeons achieve consistent, excellent outcomes for general open-heart procedures,” says Hall. “But we could provide example after example of how these skilled and dedicated surgeons continue to exceed expectations by performing well even under extraordinary circumstances. Jefferson Regional is very proud to offer the area’s top surgeons, state-of-the art facilities and a fine clinical staff to care for patients from admission to recovery.”

Even after a patient goes home, the high quality of care continues. For instance, 100 percent of open-heart patients are tracked for outcomes on 100 different variables. The cardiac center measures the results of heart surgeries at the medical center against national benchmarks, enabling Jefferson Regional to continually improve the quality of care.

Located one mile from the Route 43/Route 51 interchange in Jefferson Hills on Coal Valley Road, Jefferson Regional Medical Center is easily accessible for families and friends of cardiac patients.

“When you have a family member in the hospital, you want to be able to focus on supporting your loved one,” said Kathy Lyons, RN, Park Cardiothoracic and Vascular Institute administrator.  “It’s so much more convenient for families of patients to come here because you don’t have to worry about rush hour traffic, tunnels or bridges. Our visitor parking is easily accessible,
affordable and safe.”

Expansion Plans for the Jefferson Regional Heart Institute:
Jefferson Regional Vice President Judy M. Hall says the medical center is not resting on its accomplishments. Present expansion plans include the addition of an electrophysiology (EP) program where current and new members of the medical staff will manage the synchronization of the human heart, often with devices such as bi-ventricular pacemakers and implantable automatic defibrillators.

“We have three catheterization labs that are a part of our Heart Institute,” says Hall. “Two of them are literally state-of-the art, built just a few years ago. The third one is under revision to be used for the EP program.” Hall adds that construction is underway on Route 51 less than two miles from the medical center for the Jefferson Regional Cardiopulmonay Wellness Center. This 7,400 square-foot facility will provide an enhanced location for the growing current cardiac rehab program at the hospital. The medical center will host community and wellness programs at the center, as well.

More about Premier:
The Premier Award for Quality, given in five clinical areas and based on quality and cost data regularly submitted to Premier for reporting and benchmarking purposes, is distinguished by its consideration of performance-based criteria including clinical quality outcomes, clinical process indicators and resource utilization outcomes. Only three winners were picked in each category for each hospital type from an eligible pool of nearly 400 Premier hospitals. Hospitals that submitted data to Premier’s Perspective ™ clinical comparative database (the largest clinical comparative database in the nation) between July 2003 and July 2004 were eligible to participate in the 2005 Premier Award for Quality program.

Premier Healthcare Informatics offers performance measurement, benchmarking, and reporting products and related advisory services and methodologies to support health systems’ and hospitals’ quality improvement efforts. Among its products and services, Premier Healthcare Informatics offers the Advisor SuiteTM of clinical and operational performance measurement and reporting solutions; best practice methodologies to directly implement quality improvement programs; project-specific guidance; and on-site expertise to support improvement of clinical outcomes and efficiency of care. Areas of expertise include JCAHO and CMS performance measurement, clinical and operational benchmarking, labor management programs, balanced scorecards, patient satisfaction, evidence-based research, and patient safety. Premier Healthcare Informatics is part of Premier, Inc., a strategic healthcare alliance that provides an array of performance solutions to hospitals and other providers. For more information about Premier Healthcare Informatics, visit www.premierinc.com/informatics or call 800-805-4608.