MCG Recognizes Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital with 2013 Doyle Award

SEATTLE, Nov. 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- MCG (formerly Milliman Care Guidelines), a leading provider of clinical guidelines to payor and provider markets, today announced that Barrington, Illinois-based Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital has won the 2013 Doyle Award. The award commends the hospital's innovative use of MCG's evidence-based guidelines and CareWebQI to decrease preventable hospital readmissions through individualized care planning in its emergency department (ED).

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"We've always had a focus on improving our overall outcomes. With all the changes taking place in healthcare, we wanted to get ahead of the curve while staying true to our philosophy of patient-centered, wholistic care," said Leah Montoya, Director of Clinical Resource Management at Good Shepherd Hospital. "With the aid of MCG's guidelines and CareWebQI, we tackled readmissions, over-utilization of the ED, and length of stay by empowering and engaging patients and the organization."

Good Shepherd Hospital partnered nurse care managers, physicians, social workers, and other community resources with members of the ED team. The hospital's interdisciplinary efforts—centered around a patient-first philosophy and evidence-based data—reduced its acute care readmission rate from 12.4% in Q1 2011 to 7.5% in Q1 2013, an impressive decline over two years of 40%.

"I am so proud of our staff," said Marianne Araujo, Chief Nurse Executive at Good Shepherd Hospital. "Preventing readmissions helps our patients and their families avoid the emotional stress of feeling like they failed at home." Araujo also credits MCG with facilitating this success. "You use knowledge to bring your ideas forward, and MCG was our knowledge base."

Over two years, the hospital estimates that it saved $2.3 million by reducing 30-day readmissions and another $2.6 million from curbing over-utilization of the ED.

"As the health system continues to evolve, hospitals that effectively manage care transitions, reduce preventable readmissions, and engage patients in their recovery will thrive," said Jon Shreve, CEO of MCG. "Good Shepherd Hospital's achievement is exceptional."

About Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital
Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, Illinois is a 169-bed acute care hospital with more than 700 physicians representing 50 medical specialties. It is part of Advocate Health Care, named one of the Top Ten hospital systems in the U.S. by Thomson-Reuters. Good Shepherd has been named one of the nation's 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals by Truven Health Analytics. Good Shepherd was the only hospital in the Chicago metropolitan area to receive this recognition. Advocate is a faith-based organization that exists to serve its communities. It contributed $571 million in charitable care and services to communities across Chicago-land and Central Illinois in 2012. For more information about Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital, visit www.advocatehealth.com/goodshep.

About MCG
MCG, formerly Milliman Care Guidelines, independently develops and produces evidence-based clinical guidelines and software used by more than 2,200 clients, including 1,200 hospitals and 8 of the 10 largest U.S. health plans. Updated annually by an experienced team of clinicians, the care guidelines support the care management of a majority of Americans. For more information, visit www.careguidelines.com.

About The Richard L. Doyle Award for Innovation and Leadership in Healthcare
The Doyle Award was developed to recognize organizations that make innovative use of the care guidelines to help deliver effective healthcare.

Dr. Doyle, the care guidelines founding editor, was a hospital chief-of-staff when he began creating clinical guidelines in the 1980s to help improve healthcare efficiency and quality at Mercy Hospital in San Diego. He later joined Milliman & Robertson and in 1990 published the first set of what was to become the care guidelines.

Judges for this award are independent healthcare quality experts, not currently associated with MCG. Applicants were judged on how well their projects supported the MCG mission to help drive effective care. Judges looked for evidence of improvements in healthcare quality and patient safety; patient/member satisfaction; staff efficiency, productivity and satisfaction; internal/external communication; and effective use of resources.

Media Contact
Nancy Narraway
MCG
Tel +1 206 389 5405
[email protected]

SOURCE MCG