A team from YNHH was named the overall conference winner for a project on medication histories. Front row (l-r) are: Tiffany Gray; Katarzyna Szablowski; Janet Kozakiewicz; Lionel Picot-Vierra; Amy D’Silva; Sara Cohn; Marie Marcelino; Andrew Cadorette. Back row: Milan Patel; Priscilla Steve; Lee Ann Miller; Olukemi Akande, MD; Kimberly Boothe; Casey Marchetti; Maribeth Cabie; Jessica Vigneau.

YNHH honored with top award at Joseph A. Zaccagnino Conference

A team from Yale New Haven Hospital earned the overall conference winner award at the 2017 Joseph A. Zaccagnino Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Conference in May.

The team’s abstract, “Pharmacy Assisted Admission Medication Histories and Reconciliation: Full Hospital Expansion,” was one of 52 displayed at the annual conference, and culled from more than 150 submitted from across Yale New Haven Health System.

The project focused on decreasing medical reconciliation discrepancies for all patients admitted to YNHH. The team, by incorporating medication history technicians and pharmacist reconciliation review, saw a 43 percent reduction in admission discrepancies and is on track to reach 100 percent this summer.

Given the project’s success, similar plans are under way at Bridgeport and Greenwich hospitals. The team is also aligning best practices with Lawrence + Memorial and Westerly hospitals, which have medical history technicians on staff.

More than 700 people attended the conference, which provides an opportunity for individuals throughout YNHHS to meet, discuss and share safety and quality best practices. Marna Borgstrom, YNHHS CEO, opened the conference by citing the significant progress made to ensure high-quality, safe care for every patient.

Keynote speaker Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, director, Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, and senior vice president, Patient Safety and Quality, Johns Hopkins Medicine, stressed the importance of humility, curiosity and compassion in enhancing value for patients and on the journey to zero harm.

“We are the only ones who will solve the problem,” he said. “Don’t be anchored to a benchmark. Harm is preventable. Stories [of patients and families impacted by harm] offer a powerful narrative for change. You change the story, you change the results.”

The conference also featured system updates on infection prevention and quality and safety, as well as a leadership panel discussion on high reliability and patient safety.

The team that received the delivery network award for YNHH succeeded in increasing the percentage of hospitalized patients with a documented surrogate decision maker within one calendar day of admission at the Veterans Affairs-West Haven Campus. Team members included (l-r): Thomas Tolbert, MD; Alexandra Norcott, MD; Chin-Kun Baw, MD; Benjamin Rodwin, MD. Not pictured: Christopher Morton, MD; and Carrie Wong, MD.

Following the top awards for overall winner and runner-up, a delivery network award was presented to each leading abstract from Northeast Medical Group, YNHHS and Bridgeport, Greenwich, Westerly and Yale New Haven hospitals.

The YNHH team representing “Improvement in Surrogate Decision Maker Documentation for Inpatients” received a delivery network award, as did the YNHHS team for its abstract “Multidisciplinary Process Improvement Optimized Oral Chemotherapy Safety and Quality.”