NAMES IN THE NEWS

Texas Health Surgery Center Wins Bernard A. Kershner Award

MARCH 2023

Texas Health Surgery Center in Arlington, Texas, received the 2022-2023 Bernard A. Kershner Innovations in Quality Improvement (QI) Award from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) of Skokie, Illinois, in the Surgical/Procedural Care category, according to a release.

The ASC received the honor for its teammate satisfaction survey study, which examined its overall employee experience as related to patient safety with a goal of increasing Employee Experience Index (EXI) scores on future surveys. Data results culled from online research showed that a heavy workload presented challenges for staff. In addition, a culture of safety survey distributed to staff identified four areas related to staffing, work pressure and pace, which specified key areas of improvement. Following corrective actions and continuous monitoring, teammate EXI scores rose from 73.3 percent to 90.5 percent at the conclusion of the study, surpassing the goal of 85 percent or greater. Following the conclusion of the study, EXI scores rose further to 97.1 percent, the highest within the organization, according to the release.

“It is apparent that our accredited organizations demonstrate model performance in the ongoing improvement of patient care and satisfaction,” said Julie Lynch, RN, director of Institute for Quality Improvement, AAAHC, in the release. “While healthcare organizations are always presented with unique challenges, as we celebrate the 20th year of the Bernard A. Kershner Innovations in Quality Improvement Award winners, we see how these organizations exemplify that with hard work and creativity, it is both important and possible to continuously improve patient experience and clinical care throughout the 1,095 days of the accreditation term.”

Princeton University Health Services won the award in the Primary Care category.

The prestigious award program, named in honor of the late Bernard A. Kershner, a leader in ambulatory health care and past chair of the AAAHC Institute Board of Trustees, recognizes AAAHC-accredited organizations that successfully implemented meaningful changes in their operations to boost quality of care, patient safety and overall efficiency through QI, according to the release. Primary care and surgical/procedural organizations submitted detailed descriptions of completed QI studies for consideration and an expert panel identified finalists in each category. Each submission underscored the 10 pillars of an effective QI study, including purpose, benchmark and goals, data collection plan, evidence of data collection, data analysis, comparison to goal, corrective actions, remeasurement, additional corrective action and communication of findings.

“AAAHC recognizes the most distinguished quality improvement studies with the Kershner QI Awards each year,” said David Shapiro, MD, former president and current member of the ASCA Board of Directors and AAAHC board chair, in the release. “The studies conducted by this year’s award finalists demonstrate that meaningful changes in operations can boost quality of care, patient safety and overall efficiency. We are excited to share the innovative, measurable approaches to patient care employed in both the primary care and the surgical/procedural sites of service that helped to improve patient experience and outcomes.”

Review a list of all past Kershner QI Award winners. For additional information on the winning QI studies, visit the AAAHC website.