Quality Improvement Initiatives Earn Praise at AMC.

SARANAC LAKE - Building on the fact the employees of Adirondack Medical Center are the primary driving force for the high quality of care delivered to patients and nursing home residents, AMC has instituted the Peak of Excellence Award program to recognize the top initiatives pursued by staff to improve patient or resident care. 

Specifically, the award is aimed at recognizing an outstanding, interdisciplinary and innovative initiative designed to achieve a measurable and sustainable quality improvement outcome. 

This is the first year AMC has granted the award, and three staff initiatives were selected based on improvements to patient and resident care resulting in a positive measurable outcome over a period of time.

The top Peak of Excellence Award honors went to AMC-Mercy staff for their initiative to eliminate falls in the long term care setting.  Residents in the long-term care setting can be susceptible to falls for a variety of reasons.  To raise awareness a falling leaf program was implemented, which consists of visual cues represented by laminated paper leaves placed on the door frame of residents who are at a high risk of falling.  In addition, all staff members are asked to be aware of furniture placement, unobstructed corridors and clean dry floors for overall fall prevention.  Most importantly, it is understood throughout the facility that fall prevention is the responsibility of all staff members.

Since implementing the fall prevention initiative, there has been a 16.4 percent reduction in the number of falls among residents in a one year period.  Managing falls among residents helps avoid injury or trauma that can result in extensive rehabilitation, limited mobility or hospitalization.

In addition to fall prevention, the Peak of Excellence Award committee recognized two other quality improvement projects for their contribution to patient satisfaction and safety: Reducing the Use of Flash Sterilization in the Operating Room Suite and Hourly Nurse Rounding.

The initiative to reduce the use of flash sterilization in the operating room, which is the sterilization of patient care items required for immediate use, focused on lowering the rate of surgical site infections.  Through a concerted education and communication campaign, surgical site infections decreased by 20 percent from .1 percent to .08 percent from 2008 to 2009.

The project to formalize hourly rounding by the nursing staff ensures patients are safe, stable, and all of their needs have been met.  Hourly rounding has been shown to reduce the number of patient falls, foster a better nurse-patient relationship, and reduce the need for the patient to ring the call light since they know a nurse is attending to their needs on a scheduled basis.  Regardless of the hourly rounding, patients are encouraged to use call lights should the need arise.

The Peak of Excellence Award is given out on an annual basis, and awardees are presented with a plaque while the winning projects and participating staff will be recognized on a permanent plaque in the lobby of AMC in Saranac Lake.

For more information about the programs and services offered at AMC, log onto www.amcCares.org.

CAPTION:  The staff at AMC-Mercy was presented with the Peak of Excellence Award for their initiative to reduce the number of resident falls in the long term care setting. 
Accepting the award were (left-right) Connie Rockefeller, Physical Therapy; Jill Brown, Social Worker; Shelley Bacon, Administrator of AMC Mercy;
Jen Kucipek, Activities Director; Stephanie Cassell, Director of Nursing; and Tracy LaFlamme, Assistant to the Administrator.

Policies & Terms - Laboratory Test Collection Information - Sitemap

	AMC is accredited by the Joint Commission. Click here to view the Joint Commission Public Notice.
	AMC is accredited by the Healthcare Facilities Accreditation Program.
	Adirondack Medical Center's Bariatric Program and Dr. Michael Hill have been designated as a Center of Excellence by the American Society for Bariatric Surgery.