TAMPA, Fla., Nov. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Four Florida hospitals have won Bright Ideas Awards for improving their organizational strength through collaboration. The awards come from VHA Southeast, a regional office of VHA Inc., a cooperative that serves not-for-profit health care organizations across the United States.
The winners were recognized in six categories for efforts to improve financial or operational performance, introduce a new service, improve quality, safety, or supply chain performance or address key work force issues. The winners of the VHA Southeast Bright Ideas Awards across the six categories are:
Financial/Operational Improvement -- Demonstrated a quantifiable change to improve the efficiency, cost structure, or revenue generation of the organization.
Winner: Lee Memorial Health System, in Fort Myers, for its “Catching the W.A.V.E” project. Lee Memorial Health System applied the concepts of lean production to health care delivery in order to reduce waste and improve patient care.
New Services -- Demonstrated a quantifiable change to improve the revenue generation of the organization through the offering of a new service
Winner: Baptist Healthcare Corporation, in Pensacola, for its work to improve patient referrals. Baptist Health Care Corporation uses Efileshare to streamline the patient referral process.
Quality Improvement -- Demonstrated a quantifiable or qualitative change to improve patient outcomes and/or satisfaction
Winner: Sarasota Memorial Hospital, in Sarasota, for its efforts to improve cardiology care. Sarasota Memorial Hospital provides convenient care to patients receiving coumadin.
Safety Improvement -- Demonstrated a quantifiable or qualitative change to improve the safety of patients and/or employees.
Winner: Lee Memorial Health System, in Fort Myers, for its “On-Boarding” initiative. Lee Memorial Health System takes a creative approach in the provision of new-hire orientation and employee relationship building resulting in a reduction of voluntary turnover rate.
Supply Chain Management/Utilization Improvement -- Demonstrated a quantifiable savings resulting from standardization and utilization within supply chain management of the organization
Winner: University Community Hospital, Tampa for its “Teamwork Saves Millions” project. The Value Analysis Team at University Community Health System improves the process by which products are evaluated and purchased, saving the System millions in supply cost expenditures.
Work Force Improvement -- Demonstrated a quantifiable or qualitative change to improve the satisfaction of current employees and attract new employees
Winner: Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Sarasota for its work to address disruptive physician behavior. Sarasota Memorial Hospital enforces a “three strikes and you’re out” policy when dealing with disruptive physician behavior.
The entries were evaluated and scored by a committee of executives from Florida and Alabama hospitals.
VHA Inc.; VHA Southeast
CONTACT: Cynthia Hare of VHA Southeast, +1-813-350-8320; or mediarelations, Baptist Health Care Corporation, +1-850-469-2338; or Lee MemorialHealth Systems, +1-239-332-1111; or Sarasota Memorial Hospital,+1-941-917-9000; or University Community Hospital, +1-813-971-6000
Web site: http://www.vha.com/