Gainesville based Northeast Georgia Health System is the first-ever hospital to receive the High Reliability Organization award, which will only be given to one health system each year.
It’s a Foundation Award from Press Ganey, a national company focused on improving American healthcare standards. The award was presented on Feb. 7 at the Press Ganey Human Experience Conference in Orlando, Florida.
The World Health Organization estimates that, on average, one in ten patients experience a secondary ailment as a result of healthcare mistakes. A “High Reliability Organization” is one that has proven their ability to practice medicine in complex, high-risk circumstances without experiencing as many injuries or accidents as is statistically expected.
North Georgia Health System has been working towards this goal of reducing patient harm at every level for the past decade. The organization says they continue to evolve and refine their daily management system, integrated improvement and strategy deployment processes, all of which have lead to this month’s recognition in the national healthcare community.
“We’re proud to be able to share this recognition of our team’s performance with the communities we serve,” said Sonja McLendon, chief of operational excellence at NGHS. “Achieving zero harm is a very difficult thing to do, even at a small hospital. But it just goes to show – and is a direct reflection of – the safe, efficient, high quality and compassionate care we offer across all of our facilities.”
Press Ganey also recognized two of Northeast Georgia Health System’s hospitals at the conference. NGMC Braselton won the Guardian of Excellence award for patient experience- their neonatal intensive care unit was given specific commendation in the award. The patient experience award is given to organizations that achieved the 95th percentile or higher for survey measures including a patient’s likelihood to recommend the hospital, their overall rating of the hospital and perception of teamwork. NGMC Barrow was granted the Guardian of Excellence for the second year in a row. The Guardian of Excellence award honors facilities for their performance in employee and physician engagement.
"Northeast Georgia Health System has embedded high reliability organizing principles and practices across their organization as a chassis to drive improvements across safety, quality, experience and engagement and reflects leadership’s deep dedication to making the right work easier to do,” said Tejal Gandhi, chief safety and transformation officer at Press Ganey. “We are so honored to recognize NGHS as the first organization to receive this inaugural recognition. The work they are doing inspires us all to bring our industry to new heights – leveraging both people and processes to ensure an optimal human experience."
To learn more about NGHS, visit nghs.com.
