Christiana Care wins patient safety, quality award

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Christiana Care Health  System has earned the John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award, the nation’s preeminent recognition for quality and safety in health care.

The award recognizes the best examples of individual, local and national efforts to improve patient safety and health care quality and is jointly presented by the Joint Commission – the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care – and the National Quality Forum, the nation’s standard setter for health care performance measurement.

Christiana Care received the award for Local Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality, which recognizes organizations that have made an extraordinary impact on care at the community level.

Care Link currently serves nearly 75,000 Medicare beneficiaries and health plan members Many  have chronic diseases and conditions – such as heart disease, stroke and diabetes – that are the leading causes of death and disability in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Nearly half of U.S. adults – about 117 million people – have one or more chronic health condition, and account for 86 percent of all health care spending, according to the CDC.

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Through Care Link, Christiana Care partners with primary care physicians to transform the way care is delivered throughout the region and accelerates Christiana Care’s  efforts to achieve better quality and better experience at reduced costs.

Care Link is an information technology-enabled network of care coordination support services that builds relationships among providers and patients to optimize outcomes. Unlike traditional care coordination programs, Care Link harnesses a real-time information technology platform that integrates information from regional health information exchanges along with other health information – including admission and emergency department visit information, physician visits, lab results, radiologic reports, pharmaceutical use and claims data.

This information is integrated into a care coordination platform that supports Care Link’s interdisciplinary team in providing care coordination services to providers and their patients. 

The Care Link team emphasizes educating patients on the appropriate sites at which to access acute care and on minimizing unnecessary use of the emergency department or hospital. The predictive engine identifies patients at highest risk of utilization, allowing the team to customize the intensity of outreach to each patient.

 

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