Only Health System in the Nation to Receive National Level Recognition

Prime Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading health systems, has been recognized with the prestigious 2021 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award in the “National Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality” category. Prime Healthcare was recognized for its cohesive program and groundbreaking initiatives in social determinants of health (SDoH) that are consistent with the aims of the National Quality Strategy: better care, healthy people and communities, and smarter spending.

The awards, presented annually by The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum, recognize major individual, local and national achievements in health care that improve patient safety and health care quality. Prime Healthcare was the only health system to receive a National Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality Award for Improving and Promoting Social Determinants of Health at a System Level.

“The John M. Eisenberg Awards were created to honor the enduring legacy of Dr. Eisenberg. Twenty years later, they continue to showcase how innovation and dedication to process improvement can lead to sustainable solutions to some of healthcare’s greatest challenges. The recipients of this year’s Eisenberg Awards uphold Dr. Eisenberg’s life’s work and those who have come before them in furthering the mission of improving patient safety and quality of care,” said David W. Baker, MD, MPH, FACP, Executive Vice President, Division of Healthcare Quality Evaluation, The Joint Commission.

The National Level Innovation award recognizes a project or initiative that extends beyond local areas and is implemented across the country to achieve national impact. Prime Healthcare’s initiative, “Improving and Promoting Social Determinants of Health at a System Level,” aims to help providers more effectively deliver patient care and reduce healthcare disparities. A multidisciplinary team of providers are actively involved in assessing and understanding patient needs. Shared decision making is encouraged to understand patients’ strengths and ongoing social challenges. This approach creates an opportunity to provide optimal care based on patients’ beliefs and their social and economic barriers. In addition, after implementing a new screening tool that identifies a patient’s SDoH needs and risk factors, Prime Healthcare observed improvements in hospital-wide readmission rates.

“We are so honored to see Prime Healthcare recognized for its efforts to address social determinants of health and improve the quality of life in communities across the United States,” said Sunny Bhatia, MD, Prime Healthcare’s Corporate Chief Medical Officer. “Prime Healthcare is committed to providing compassionate quality care, building value, preserving access, improving health outcomes, and decreasing costs. Addressing social determinants of health is important to achieving better health outcomes and delivering value-based care.”

Winning criteria for the Innovation Award included demonstrated success in making significant, long-lasting contributions to improving patient safety and health care quality, showcasing how innovation and dedication to process improvement can lead to sustainable solutions, and inspiring the mission to improve patient safety and quality of care amid a global pandemic.

“Prime Healthcare’s physician-led and patient-centered mission was created to ensure health equity and excellent clinical outcomes for all those we serve,” said Kavitha Bhatia, President and Chair of Prime Healthcare Foundation. “Thank you to The Joint Commission and National Quality Forum for this wonderful and meaningful recognition. Our dedication to connecting patients to social determinants of health solutions includes offering preventive services, contributing to community health initiatives, addressing food insecurity, housing stability and more. Especially throughout the pandemic, we feel humbled by the opportunity to provide exceptional patient care to communities that otherwise would not have access. Thank you to all our caregivers for this remarkable achievement.”

Listen to Prime Healthcare’s Vice President of Quality and Value-based Care, Ahmad Imran, MD, MBA, discuss Prime’s award-winning solutions to reducing all-cause hospital-wide readmission by addressing patient needs based on social determinants of health in The Joint Commission’s Take 5 podcast.

The patient safety awards program, launched in 2002, honors the late John M. Eisenberg, MD, MBA, former administrator of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). An impassioned advocate for health care quality improvement, Eisenberg was a member of NQF’s founding board of directors, chaired the federal government’s Quality Interagency Coordination Task Force and personally led AHRQ’s grant program to support patient safety research. For more information on the accomplishments of the 2021 awardees, please read the award brochure.

About Prime Healthcare

As an award-winning health system headquartered in Ontario, California, operating 45 hospitals and more than 300 outpatient locations in 14 states, Prime Healthcare provides more than 2.6 million patient visits annually. It is one of the nation’s leading health systems with nearly 50,000 employees and physicians. Fourteen of the Prime Healthcare hospitals are members of the Prime Healthcare Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity. To learn more, please visit www.primehealthcare.com.

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Prime Healthcare, one of the nation’s leading health systems, has been recognized with the prestigious 2021 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Award in the “National Level Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality” category.