Quality & Patient Safety

At East Jefferson General Hospital, Extraordinary Care is a Given

East Jefferson General Hospital was recently awarded an ‘A’ Hospital Safety Grade from the Leapfrog Group.

Our commitment is to provide quality patient care

At East Jefferson General Hospital, we place great emphasis on Quality Scores to help us continuously improve our delivery of care. Multi-disciplinary teams of physicians, Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs), pharmacists, therapists, and clinical nurses work together as a team to achieve improvements in clinical care and guide the organization toward a culture of quality and patient safety.

We have been a national leader in the adoption of electronic medical records to improve the accuracy, efficiency, and measurability of clinical outcomes.

In addition, our efforts include the following important strategies and tools needed to accomplish clinical excellence:

Development of physician order sets incorporating the current best practices.
Development of clinical pathways addressing the daily care of the individual patient.
Dedicated resources for quality management and patient throughput programs.
Expansion of the electronic medical records system.
EJGH has successfully incorporated patient safety goals into the daily care provided to the community. We have been awarded the Joint Commission Gold Seal of Approval® signifying that we meet or exceed their high standards of care.

In addition, East Jefferson General Hospital has been recognized by the following organizations for clinical excellence:

American Heart Association’s Gold Award – The Gold Award is part of the American Heart Association’s Get with the Guidelines initiative and is one of the highest honors a hospital can receive. It demonstrates outstanding and consistent care for our patients experiencing heart failure. This award is based on meeting and exceeding performance measures set by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. Further, it goes beyond the clinical treatment and recognizes the efforts to educate the patient about heart-healthy living.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana Blue Center of Distinction® – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana named East Jefferson General Hospital a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement. This distinction is an affirmation of the clinical excellence in orthopedics that our medical team provides our patients.

Blue Distinction is an innovative quality designation developed by Blue Cross Blue Shield that helps consumers and their physicians find medical facilities that have a demonstrated expertise in specialty care. These recognized healthcare providers must meet objective, evidence-based thresholds for clinical quality, developed in collaboration with expert physicians and medical organizations.

Louisiana’s First Nurse Magnet Hospital – In 2002, East Jefferson General Hospital became the first hospital in Louisiana to earn the prestigious Magnet Status for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. In 2006, East Jefferson General Hospital was one of only a handful of hospitals able to raise their standards high enough to earn the distinction of being re-designated as a Nurse Magnet Hospital.

Scores

The following categories indicate the quality measures based on clinical outcome data and feedback from patients on how they rate our hospital. These categories will also offer detailed descriptions of the quality measures and provide information as to why each is important to patients.

Measuring quality

Welcome to the Quality Scores section of our website. Our administration and East Jefferson General Hospital Board of Directors realize that it is in everyone’s best interest to publish our clinical outcomes and make the scores readily available. We are dedicated to being national leaders in medical transparency so that you can have the confidence in our ability to provide the care you need. These scores reflect the majority of areas we are excelling in and will also point us to the areas where we can improve.

It is through the belief that all hospitals should embrace the highest levels of transparency that East Jefferson General Hospital has launched the effort to provide the community with its most important hospital data. This data details how we measure up to state and national averages. The goal is to conveniently offer this information so that you can make the most informed decisions about your family’s health.

Throughout this section, you will be able to learn about the agencies that measure hospitals throughout the nation, what these measurements mean, and about the role you can play to be a safer patient. Being an active participant in your healthcare helps the entire care team provide a consistently extraordinary hospital experience.

These clinical outcomes serve as the benchmarks to evaluate the level of care we provide to the community and are continually used to improve our processes and protocols. It is only through this type of self-evaluation that we can improve the way we perform. It is also how you know that East Jefferson General Hospital is meeting or exceeding the standards of care at other leading facilities.

About quality data

There are multiple organizations that are good sources for quality data. East Jefferson General Hospital uses Hospital Compare for reporting purposes on this website. This quality information can also be found on Louisiana Healthfinder Compare. Hospital Compare is a creation “through the efforts of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), along with the Hospital Quality Alliance.”

These sites represent an initiative with experts in both government agencies and the private sector and allow consumers to search a hospital’s quality scores and compare the results against national, Louisiana and other individual hospitals through the country. Clinical data are supplied by each participating hospital and are independently verified for accuracy.

A major portion of the quality data, also referred to as care or core measures, is the set of indicators that measure the consistency at which hospitals provide the recommended standards of care, processes and treatments. This standardized care is based on the latest, evidenced-based medical practices that are shown to produce the best clinical results.

The primary specialty areas rate a hospital’s performance in treating patients with pneumonia, heart failure, those suffering a heart attack, and for patients undergoing surgery (Surgical Care Improvement Project is also known as SCIP).

Another main component of the performance measuring system is the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). HCAHPS is a nationally standardized patient survey based on patients’ experience with a hospital. The uniformity of the 10 questions yields comparable results for all hospitals throughout the country. Additional information on the survey can be found at www.hcahpsonline.org.

The patient experience survey asks patients to rate the hospital in the following areas:

Overall Rating of Hospital
Willingness to Recommend Hospital
Communication with Nurses
Communication with Doctors
Timeliness Assistance from Hospital Staff (Responsiveness of Hospital Staff)
Pain Management
Communication About Medications
Transition to Home (Discharge Information)
Cleanliness of Hospital Environment
Quietness of the Hospital Environment

Being a safe patient

Programs are in place to set the quality standards needed to accomplish this goal, and these safety programs are constantly reviewed and improved. We always monitor our patients who are at risk for falls, are diligent in implementing guidelines to reduce the risk of hospital acquired infections, and have the appropriate checks in place to best improve medical accuracy. All of these, as well as many other protocols, are here to give everyone the best overall patient experience.

Recognizing the importance of patient safety, we would like to share some tips on how you can play a role in your safety while you or someone you love is in the hospital. We believe that by educating the community on patient safety, we can all work together to make every patient stay a safe one. The following are ways you can help our care team:

Know your medications

Prior to an office visit with your physician or your pre-surgical consultation with your surgeon before any surgery, always make a list of the medications you are taking, and also include dosage of the medication, any supplements you are taking and any drug allergies you may have. Especially in an emergency, carry this list in your wallet or purse. It will help the emergency department to provide the right care. In addition, anytime a nurse or physician gives you medication, confirm that it is correct.

Before surgery

The surgeons and surgical staff should review all aspects of what you can expect during and immediately after surgery. In the pre-operative prepping for surgery, ask your physician to mark the surgical site with a pen while you are awake to confirm the area. Also, ask what antibiotics or drugs will be used during or after surgery to minimize the risk of infection and blood clots. Most importantly, if you sense something is wrong or if you don’t understand something that is being done, speak up and let the medical team know.

Preventing infections

While in the hospital, it is extremely important to avoid any unnecessary risk of infection. Anyone who examines you should wash their hands first and have a clean stethoscope. Catheters should not be left in any longer than necessary and anytime a central line or IV is inserted, ask whether the hospital is following sterile procedures.

Prevent bedsores

During your recovery and if you have an extended stay in the hospital, have the medical team change your position every two hours and check for redness or sores on the skin to detect ulcers early. It is also advisable for many patients to have a pillow between their knees and ankles to avoid skin-to-skin contact or to place the pillow under the heels if lying on the back. At East Jefferson, our hospital beds are specially equipped to help reduce the risk of bedsores.

The safest patient is one who engages the medical professionals treating them. Every effort at every level is made to safely transition each patient from the hospital to their home so they can return to their normal life.

Additional resources and recommendations on making your hospital visit a safe experience: