Quality and patient safety are primary strategic imperatives for Sentara Healthcare. Sentara has long been recognized as an industry leader for our innovations and accomplishments to improve health every day.
Our goal is to lead the industry to achieve top 10 percent performance wherever national benchmarks exist. Partnering with national leaders, such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the National Quality Forum has enabled Sentara to continually learn from and contribute to advancements in quality and patient safety.
Read more about Sentara's quality and patient safety distinctions:
U.S. News Top Hospitals
For the 11th year, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and Sentara Heart Hospital rank among the nation’s best heart programs. Listed 43rd in the U.S. News & World Report's 2010-11 Best Hospitals, Sentara posts a mortality score that is better than five of the top ten programs on the list.
Sentara remains the only heart program in this region and only one of two hospitals in Virginia to be ranked by U.S. News & World Report.
Read more details on Sentara's U.S. News & World Report rankings.
Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Network
Sentara has consistently ranked among the nation's top integrated health care networks in
Modern Healthcare's fact-based ranking. The study, which is published annually, highlights the top 100 integrated health care networks across the nation as selected by SDI, a health information company. (Verispan formerly published the ranking.) In 2010, SDI ranked Sentara Healthcare first nationwide after examining nearly 600 networks. This was the thirteenth year in a row that Sentara has been listed in the top 10.
Clinical ExcellenceSentara Bayside Hospital was awarded a
Voluntary Hospitals of America (VHA) 2009 Leadership award for Clinical Excellence for achieving a high level of performance in AMI, heart failure, pneumonia and Surgical Care Improvement Program (SCIP) clinical quality indicators as measured by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission. The hospital demonstrated national top quartile performance in all four core measure categories during July 2007 through June 2008.
Comprehensive Breast Health ServicesThe
Women's Imaging Pavilion at Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center and
Dorothy G. Hoefer Comprehensive Breast Center in Newport News are among the nation’s first breast programs to gain full, three-year accreditation by the
National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC). Administered by the American College of Surgeons, the Sentara centers join one other in Arlington, Va., to earn the designation.
Read the press release.
Gold Seal of Approval
The Joint Commission has given three Sentara hospitals its Gold Seal of Approval and Disease Specific Care Certification. Sentara Norfolk General Hospital earned
vascular certification. Norfolk General, Sentara Leigh Hospital and Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital earned
stroke certification. Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital was recognized for
heart failure and acute myocardial infarction care in 2008.
Stroke care at Sentara Vascular care at Sentara Cardiac care at Sentara
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Sentara eCare® Technology
In 2009, the Sentara eCare Health Network® was expanded to Sentara's largest hospital, Norfolk General. Sentara eCare® is an electronic medical record system that allows for the secure sharing of patient information across physical boundaries, including hospitals, physician offices, diagnostic centers and patients' homes. For patients, Sentara eCare® has resulted in more timely and accurate care. Sentara Leigh Hospital, Sentara Bayside Hospital and Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital also have the Sentara eCare® network.
Read more about the Sentara eCare Health Network®.
Infection Prevention
Prevention of health care-associated infections is a national concern, and Sentara continually strives to reduce these cases.
While all Sentara hospitals have been working diligently to reduce the occurrence of ventilator-associated pneumonia, in 2010 Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center marked six consecutive years with zero cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia, which can develop in patients who have been on mechanical ventilation for 48 hours or more. Further emphasizing the significance of this accomplishment, VHA, a voluntary national organization focused on health care financial performance through clinical excellence and supply chain management, plans to "blueprint" the practices at Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center as a model for hospitals across the country. Read the press release.
Sentara Obici Hospital recently marked three consecutive years with zero cases of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) in its Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Sentara intensive care units have demonstrated a drastic drop in central line-related blood stream infections, and Sentara's performance is among the top 10 percent nationally, according to comparative statistics provided by the Centers for Disease Control.
Tracking and reducing health care-associated MRSA infections (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus strain infections) have been a key focus for improving care nationwide. In order to immediately identify patients who are carriers of MRSA, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and Sentara CarePlex Hospital launched an ICU "active surveillance" program in 2007, which was expanded to the ICUs in all Sentara hospitals in 2008.
Three Sentara hospitals have been recognized for leadership in heart treatment and surgical site infection prevention. Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital and Sentara Leigh Hospital earned honors for treatment of heart attacks by receiving a Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence in 2006 from Voluntary Hospitals of America, an alliance of 2,400 not-for-profit hospitals. VHA also honored Sentara Leigh and Sentara Bayside Hospital for prevention of surgical site infections.
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Improving Cardiac Care
Sentara is committed to reducing the time to provide emergency interventional care for heart attack (AMI) patients. Current national standards are to provide coronary intervention within 90 minutes of the patent's arrival to the hospital. At each Sentara hospital, multidisciplinary teams, including Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel, emergency physicians, cardiologists, nurses and others routinely monitor response times for AMI patients and continually work to improve processes.
Read more about cardiac care at Sentara.
eICU®
Sentara was the first in the nation to deploy the VISICU eICU® technology. The program uses telemedicine combined with videoconferencing, smart alerts and integrated information technologies that allow intensive- and critical-care nurses to provide constant remote surveillance and care to patients in ICUs across all Sentara hospitals. This technologically advanced life-monitoring equipment and computer software has helped produce the most dramatic reduction of mortality in the history of ICU care.
Read more about eICU monitoring
Preventing Medication Errors
Bedside medication verification, which includes barcoding technology, was implemented at Sentara Obici Hospital in 2007. The program was expanded to additional hospitals as part of Sentara eCare Health Network in 2008. National studies have found that bedside verification, which includes barcoding technology systems, can reduce hospital medication errors by nearly 70 percent.
The Leapfrog Group Top Hospitals List
In 2006, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital was one of 59 hospitals, and the only one in Virginia, to be named to the The Leapfrog Group's first Top Hospitals list. This ranking is based on results from the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey, a national rating system that offers a broad assessment of a hospital’s quality and safety.
More (from The Leapfrog Group Web site)
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Bariatric Surgery Excellence
The bariatric surgery program at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital received national accreditation in 2006 as a "Center of Excellence" from the American College of Surgeons -- the second in the state to receive the distinction. Sentara CarePlex Hospital received the designation "Center of Excellence" by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery in 2005.
Read more about weight loss surgery at Sentara.
John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award
Sentara’s Culture of Safety initiative was awarded the 2005 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality award from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the National Quality Forum. Sentara received the award for ‘Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality at a Local or Organizational Level.’
Read more about the award.
Pharmacy Best Practices Award
In 2004, the 80-member pharmacy team for Sentara Healthcare won a national peer award from the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP). The Best Practices award to Sentara is for a systemwide initiative to reduce adverse events from high-risk intravenous medications.
Read more about the award.
Quest for Quality
In 2004 Sentara Norfolk General Hospital was awarded this national recognition for its Culture of Safety initiative. Runners-up included Johns Hopkins and Advocate Health of Chicago.
Read more about the recognition.
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