Altoona Regional Wins Awards for Clinical Excellence

ALTOONA - Altoona Regional Health System has received three Achieving Patient Care Excellence (APEX) Awards from VHA Pennsylvania, the regional arm of VHA Inc., the national health care alliance. Altoona Regional won the awards for its work to:

· Improve care for patients who have suffered from a heart attack, the leading cause of death for adults;

· Prevent and reduce the incidence of bloodstream infections, and

· Prevent and reduce the incidence of MRSA infections in hospitalized patients — a growing and highly-publicized concern for hospitals across the nation.

The awards recognize Altoona Regional for meeting or exceeding national standards for care in these areas. VHA Pennsylvania recently hosted a luncheon to celebrate the achievements of member hospitals that received APEX Awards this past year at Bedford Springs Resort.

“These awards recognize the high quality of care for patients that our staff provides,” said David L. Cowger, M.D., senior vice president, Quality/Medical Affairs. “Members of the community can be reassured knowing they are receiving a nationally recognized standard of care.”

Sandra Kozielec, director of Quality Management said, “Receiving these awards validates our commitment to excellence. Our physicians and our nurses continue to work with other staff in our continuous performance improvement process to improve the quality of care provided to our patients.”

Steve Johnson, chief executive officer of Susquehanna Health and VHA Pennsylvania board chair, said, “VHA works with dozens of hospitals across Pennsylvania, and our mission is to help them become leading performers. We’re proud to say that many members have certainly demonstrated clinical excellence. VHA supports hospitals as they work to improve clinical care by providing Web tools to help them assess their current performance and clinical blueprints that guide better performance.”