ABMS Names Nationwide Children's Hospital as Recipient of its First-Ever Quality Improvement Award

CHICAGO, Sept. 25, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), the leading not-for-profit organization overseeing physician certification in the United States, has awarded Nationwide Children's Hospital its first-ever ABMS Multi-Specialty Portfolio Program™ (Portfolio Program) Outstanding Achievement in Quality Improvement Award.

The award, announced at ABMS Conference 2018, was established to recognize the exemplary efforts and activities of Portfolio Program Sponsors that are working to improve patient care quality, safety, outcomes, and experiences. The organizations recognized will have demonstrated leadership and innovation in quality improvement (QI) planning, implementation, and the ability to spread and sustain QI effort improvement and outcomes in their organization.

Nationwide Children's Hospital was selected because of QI excellence it demonstrated for its efforts to Reduce Adverse Drug Events (ADEs). 

The project is a collaboration of 30 physicians and nearly 70 additional health care professionals, QI staff, and managers from multiple clinical and administrative departments. Through its extensive quality work, ADEs decreased by 85 percent, the organization realized a cost savings of over $3 million, and the project has been spread to all inpatient units and many of their outpatient clinics. Additionally, this work has precipitated several spin-off QI initiatives, has been shared with the 130 children's hospitals that are members of the Solution for Patient Safety National Network, and has been published in peer-reviewed publications. 

"We are pleased to honor Nationwide Children's Hospital as the first recipient of the ABMS Portfolio Program Outstanding Achievement in Quality Improvement Award," stated ABMS President and Chief Executive Officer Richard E. Hawkins, MD. "Working with organizations like Nationwide Children's Hospital illustrates how the ABMS Boards Community, in partnership with a wide range of health care organizations, can impact patient safety and practice improvement."

"Nationwide Children's is honored to receive this inaugural award from ABMS, which recognizes our work to eliminate adverse drug events," said Richard E. McClead Jr., MD, MHA, Associate Chief Medical Officer and Lead Physician of the Nationwide Children's Hospital Adverse Drug Event Collaborative. "This aspirational goal depends upon the engagement of a large, diverse, multidisciplinary team. Their sustained efforts truly have saved children's lives. Every Nationwide Children's Hospital clinician is very proud that their work has had such an impact."

David W. Price, MD, FAAFP, FACEHP, Executive Director of the Portfolio Program, noted, "We received several high-caliber submissions for our inaugural award. We selected Nationwide Children's for several reasons, including the comprehensive, sustained, and collaborative manner by which its healthcare team and various departments were involved in planning, the array of interventions implemented to affect change, the remarkable project outcomes, the sustainability of the project, and its recognition through peer-reviewed publication."

To date, the ABMS Portfolio Program has helped engage physicians in QI/practice improvement (PI) initiatives at hospitals and health systems across the country, with many showing improvement in care outcomes. Since its inception, more than 2,600 improvement efforts have been completed by Portfolio Program participants. For more information about participation in the Portfolio Program, visit the program website at mocportfolioprogram.org.

About ABMS
Established in 1933, the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) is the leading not-for-profit organization overseeing physician certification in the United States. ABMS establishes the standards its 24 Member Boards use to develop and implement educational and professional evaluation, assessment, and certification of physician specialists. More than 880,000 physicians are certified in one or more of the approved 39 specialties and 86 subspecialties offered by the ABMS Member Boards. For more information about ABMS, visit abms.org or call (312) 436-2600.

SOURCE American Board of Medical Specialties

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