Harborview Medical Center receives Award of Excellence

The Division of Cardiology and Pharmacy at Harborview are awarded with the Award of Excellence from Qualis Health on a collaborative project.

For the past 15 years, Qualis Health has annually awarded outstanding organizations in Washington and Idaho with Awards of Excellence. The recipients of this award are teams which demonstrate leadership and innovation within healthcare practices, and push the envelope in healthcare quality improvement, with the main focus being on better healthcare, better health, and reduced costs through improvement.

DAPT, consisting of aspirin in combination with a P2Y12 inhibitor, is a well-established approach to reducing the risk of thrombosis after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Studies have shown that nonadherence to DAPT significantly increases the risk of stent thrombosis and death. Because nonadherence typically results from inadequate education prior to discharge, the Harborview/UW Medicine team created a multidisciplinary discharge and follow-up program for patients undergoing PCI in order to improve access to care and adherence to DAPT. The program was designed to ensure that every PCI patient receives individual education and a scheduled clinic visit prior to discharge, as well as DAPT prescription refills even if the appointment is not kept. In the six months before and after program implementation, the team compared 30 and 34 patients, respectively. Rates for discharge DAPT prescription pick-up increased from 83.3% to 93.1%, and first refill rates rose from 60.9% to 81.5%. The percentage of appointments that were kept increased from 63.3% to 72.7%. Finally, six-month hospital readmission rates decreased from 27.6% to 11.8%.

The team was recognized at the annual Northwest Patient Safety Conference on May 1st, where Physician Executive of Quality and Safety at Qualis Health John Vassall, MD, awarded Harborview and four other organizations for “making a real difference for their patients and families.”

Join us in congratulating our Harborview Medical Center team for this outstanding achievement!