Message from the Chief Medical Officer

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Welcome to the second edition of DOCLine. To save you time, the core newsletter stays brief with "links" to additional information if you’re interested. Please note that we will also link to other provider newsletters, CME calendars, and profiles of new members of the Medical Staff. I have two key messages for this issue:

1. HEALTHGRADES Quality Awards: As most of you know, HEALTHGRADES is an organization that rates all U.S. hospitals on a variety of medical conditions annually, grading each hospital for each condition on a 1, 3, or 5 star basis. The ratings cover mortality or complication rates and are risk adjusted. 3 stars means average performance and 5 stars means superior performance. You can guess what 1 star means. Danbury Hospital was proud to achieve 5 stars in a majority (14 out of 27) of the conditions rated.

HEALTHGRADES also issues Specialty Excellence Awards denoting top 5-10 percent national level performance. We received this prestigious award in 7 of 14 areas. This virtually unprecedented level of performance warrants congratulations to our entire staff---it is a combined effort from everyone who touches our patients, anywhere across the continuum of care.

HEALTHGRADES SUMMARY 2008, 2007, and 2006 FOR DANBURY HOSPITAL

Mortality and/or Complication Rates
*=below expectation  ***=as expected  
*****=exceeds expectation

Clinical Conditions and DH rating	2006	2007	2008
Atrial Fibrillation	*****	*****	*****
Back and Neck Surgery (w/o spinal fusion)	***	***	***
Back and Neck Surgery (w spinal fusion)	***	***	*
Bowel Obstruction	***	***	***
Carotid Endarterectomy	***	***	***
Cholecystectomy	***	***	*****
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease	*****	*****	*****
Community Acquired Pneumonia	*****	*****	*****
Diabetic Acidosis and Coma	***	***	***
Coronary Artery Bypass		***	*****
Gastrointestinal Bleed	*****	*****	*****
GI procedures and surgeries	*****	***	***
Heart Attack	*****	*****	*****
Heart Failure	*****	*****	*****
Hip fracture repair (ORIF)	***	***	*****
Pancreatitis	***	***	***
Peripheral Vascular Bypass	***	***	***
Prostatectomy	***	***	***
Pulmonary Embolism	***	***	*****
Resection/replacement abdominal aorta	***	***	***
Respiratory Failure	*****	*****	*****
Sepsis	*****	*****	*****
Stroke	*****	*****	*****
Total Hip Replacement	*	***	*****
Total Knee Replacement	***	***	***
Angioplasty			***
Valve replacement surgery			***

NOTES:

1. HealthGrades ratings are 3 year aggregates of data. For 2008, the years 2004-2006 are covered. For 2007, it’s 2003-2005 and for 2006 it’s 2002-2004.
2. Improvements for 2008 include 5 stars for cholecystectomy, coronary bypass surgery, hip fracture repair (ORIF), pulmonary embolism and total hip replacement.
3. Only decrease in performance: 1 star for back and neck surgery with spinal fusion.
4. Of the now 27 clinical conditions evaluated, we achieved 5 stars in 14. Last year, we achieved 5 stars in 9 of 25 conditions. Now we’re superior in a majority.

Other HealthGrades awards

Specialty Excellence Awards: HealthGrades has identified 14 general specialty areas and awards hospitals achieving TOP 5-10 percent performance in the entire U.S. Last year, they had 10 areas, and we won awards in 4. This year, we received specialty excellence awards in 7 of the 14:

• Cardiac Care
• Cardiac Surgery
• Critical Care
• Gastroenterology
• GI Surgery
• Pulmonary
• Stroke

NO other hospital in CT achieved this many specialty awards.

2. DOC-link:
Don’t you wish you could access the electronic medical record of all your patients that are admitted, treated or tested at the hospital? Don’t you wish you had that information automatically pushed to you electronically whenever your name is associated with that care? DOC-link is the answer and it keeps getting better. We can install it in your office, and with the accompanying OFFICE-link, you can also give access to your office manager and all of your office staff at your request so you can spend more time with your patients.

Here are some features of OFFICE-link that can assist you and your office staff:

Accessible from home or office

• Customizable dashboard to meet specific workflow needs
• Enables physicians remote access to clinical information for all DHS patients
• All patient demographic information
• All patient result information
• All patient transcribed reports such as H&P, OP notes, discharge summaries
• Radiology images
• EKGs
• Computerized Physician Order Entry
  • Allergies
  • Drug-drug interactions
  • Standard dosing
  • Recent pertinent laboratory data
  • Ordersets
• Census views
  • Inpatient
  • Group
  • ED
  • Outpatient
• Medical Resources
  • Medline
  • Micromedex
  • Lippincott
  • Hospital Policies
  • JCAHO policies
  • OVID
  • Medical necessity
• Library Resources
  • 265 electronic journals
  • 125 electronic textbooks
  • 45 subject links

Email Officelink.email@danhosp.org for more information and to request an installation.