Grand View Hospital received a Surgical Care Improvement Award of Excellence for implementing best practices to improve patient safety.

All hospitals in the state of Pennsylvania and across the nation are evaluated on the same core process of care measures that serve as the criteria for the award. Only nine hospitals in Pennsylvania including Grand View received the award.

Grand View’s Quality Management Manager Cathy Hurley, credits a proactive, team approach.

“Our entire staff – surgeons, anesthesiologists, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, hospital executives and others – has worked together to make quality patient outcomes a priority. We put several processes in place to minimize the risk of infection and other surgical complications,” Hurley said.

Some of the processes include: Administration of appropriate antibiotics within the right timeframe; maintaining the appropriate body temperature throughout the surgical process; removing catheters used to drain the bladder in a timely manner after surgery; and giving drugs that prevent blood clots.

The Surgical Care Improvement Award of Excellence was bestowed by Quality Insights of Pennsylvania, a non-profit organization under contract with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. This organization protects Medicare patient rights and works collaboratively with hospitals and other health care providers in Pennsylvania to assist them in their efforts to improve the quality of the care they deliver.