National Award Recognizes Delmarva Foundation and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Quality Improveme...( Program Receives 2007 Distinctive...),Health

Program Receives 2007 Distinctively Blue Award for Hospital Quality Improvement

BALTIMORE, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Successful efforts to reduce hospital-acquired infections in the mid-Atlantic region were recently honored with a national award from the BlueCross BlueShield Association of America. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield (CareFirst) received the 2007 Distinctively Blue Award for Innovations for the 100,000 Lives and Beyond Collaborative. CareFirst and the Delmarva Foundation for Medical Care, a healthcare quality improvement organization, work jointly on this ongoing program to improve the quality of care in local hospitals.

CareFirst and Delmarva Foundation are working together to build on national patient safety focus areas, including the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) 100,000 Lives and 5 Million Lives campaigns.

"Delmarva Foundation is an outstanding partner with us on a number of fronts," said Dr. Jon Shematek, CareFirst Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. "We are making measurable strides in improving health care quality and this award confirms the progress we are seeing."

The 100,000 Lives and Beyond Collaborative, a program offered by Delmarva Foundation with financial support from CareFirst, ran from January 2006 to January 2007. Delmarva worked with 28 hospitals from Maryland, the District of Columbia, and northern Virginia to implement evidence-based strategies to improve the process of care and clinical outcomes in the intensive care unit (ICU) and operating room (OR). The 100,000 Lives and Beyond Collaborative aligned national and regional regulatory and accreditation patient safety goals and priorities with clinically relevant outcomes and local priorities.

Highlighted results from the 100,000 Lives and Beyond Collaborative include:

-- 53% of reporting ICU teams improved compliance with key processes that

can reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia cases; 6
'/>"/>