Community, Kelsey Hospital, United Hospital

Spectrum Health United & Kelsey Hospitals Receive 2012 Spirit of Quality Award

November 20, 2012

Michigan Center for Rural Health Honors hospitals with the Spirit of Quality Award

Spectrum Health United and Kelsey Hospitals received the Michigan Center for Rural Health’s 2012 Spirit of Quality Award for Inpatient Fall Rate, Patient Safety Culture Phase II Implementation and Stroke Core Measures.

This is the fourth year the Michigan Center for Rural Health has offered the quality award. United and Kelsey Hospitals have made significant and sustained improvement in patient safety and quality improvement through the implementation of evidenced based best practice and through collaboration with staff and providers from across the organization.

“Award recipients are committed to providing their patients with high quality health care,” said John Barnas, Executive Director of the Michigan Center for Rural Health. “The Michigan Center for Rural Health is pleased to sponsor this award which recognizes the dedication of hospital staff to provide the right care to the right patient each and every time.”

“Together our staff is demonstrating we are providing the very best in medical care,” said Tina Freese-Decker, president, United and Kelsey Hospitals. “Our hospitals are committed to the tenets of quality improvement that embrace evidence-based medicine to improve health outcomes.”

The multidisciplinary teams at United and Kelsey Hospitals identified opportunities to improve care processes which impacted the entire organization.  Once an opportunity was identified at the departmental level, these teams fixed the problem and then partnered with the staff in other departments to ensure the adoption of best practices throughout the organization.  These efforts led to improved fall rates at both hospitals, cutting edge stroke care in the emergency departments, and the implementation of critically important safety behaviors in all patient care settings.

United and Kelsey Hospitals were honored by The Michigan Center for Rural Health at an awards ceremony during the 13th Annual Michigan Critical Access Hospital Conference  November 8, 2012 in Boyne Falls, Michigan. The Michigan Center for Rural Health is a non-profit organization formed in 1991 as part of a nation-wide, federal and state initiative to recognize the importance of rural health care and to create a mechanism for resources to flow to rural areas.

About Spectrum Health
Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit health system in West Michigan offering a full continuum of care through the Spectrum Health Hospital Group, which is comprised of nine hospitals including Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, a state of the art children’s hospital that opened in January 2011, and 183 service sites; the Spectrum Health Medical Group and West Michigan Heart, physician groups totaling more than 700 providers; and Priority Health, a health plan with 600,000 members. Spectrum Health is West Michigan’s largest employer with 19,000 employees. The organization provided $204 million in community benefit during its 2012 fiscal year.