October 1, 2008

INTEGRIS Blackwell Regional Hospital has received an award for Clinical Excellence from the VHA Oklahoma/Arkansas regional office.  The award recognizes INTEGRIS Blackwell for improving overall clinical quality based on CMS and Joint Commission core measures.

“VHA works with dozens of hospitals across Oklahoma and Arkansas, and our mission is to help them become better performers,” said Bruce A. Naylor, M.D., FACP, Vice President of clinical improvement and Medical Director for the VHA Oklahoma/Arkansas region.  “We provide hospitals with Web tools that enable them to assess their current performance, clinical blueprints that guide them to better performance, and a regional collaborative that enable them to network with each other to accelerate the pace of performance improvement.  Public expectations, payor demands and government mandates are pushing hospitals to provide better care.  By recognizing these selected hospitals with clinical quality awards, we hope to demonstrate that hospitals can overcome the financial obstacles that often stand in the way to achieving clinical excellence.”

INTEGRIS Blackwell is one of only 31 hospitals to win this award from the VHA Oklahoma/Arkansas region.  VHA Inc., the national health care alliance, has 16 regional offices across the nation.  Each office serves as a hub for the delivery and development of programs and services that help hospitals improve their operational and clinical performance. 

This award is given to hospitals that demonstrate clinical excellence based on performance data related to the treatment of heart attacks, pneumonia, heart failure and prevention of surgical site infections. Data was tracked from Q4 2006 through Q2 2007.  Organizations that improved the aggregate score for any single measurement set over baseline by 5% or greater qualified for an improvement award.