Highland Hospital Awards & Designations
Beacon Award for Nursing Excellence: Intensive Care Unit
For the second consecutive year, Highland Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit received the prestigious Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence for being one of the top units in the nation. Awarded by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN), the Beacon Award recognizes critical care units that achieve the highest quality outcomes. Highland is the only adult critical care unit in the Rochester area to have been granted the Beacon Award twice.
The Beacon Award is given to ICUs that have exhibited high quality standards, exceptional care of patients and their families, as well as healthy work environments. The award is increasingly linked to patient safety initiatives, as it provides a way for units to measure their systems, outcomes, and environment. Highland Hospital received its first Beacon Award in the spring of 2007.
There are an estimated 6,000 ICUs in the United States. Only 120 of them have ever received the Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence, and only 19 of those have ever been selected multiple times like Highland Hospital.
NICHE Nursing Accreditation: Acute Care for Elders Unit
Originally awarded a Nurses Improving Care for Health System Elders (NICHE) designation in 2006, the Acute Care for Elders (ACE) at Highland Hospital recently received re-designation until 2010. NICHE began in 1992 and is a national geriatric nursing program of The John A. Hartford Foundation Institute for Geriatric Nursing. The program is focused on supporting nursing's pre-eminent role in the care of hospitalized older patients and provides structured training, essential tools and evidence based resources, improved protocols and broad implementation of best practices to help Highland’s staff to provide the best of care for geriatric patients throughout the hospital.
Joint Commission Certification: Evarts Joint Center
Highland Hospital’s Evarts Joint Center earned the Gold Seal of Approval™ for health care quality from the Joint Commission, a national, not-for-profit health accrediting organization. The Joint Commission awarded the Evarts Joint Center its Disease-Specific Care Certification for Knee and Hip Replacement.
To earn this distinction, the Evarts Joint Center volunteered to undergo an extensive, on-site evaluation. A Joint Commission reviewer judged the center’s performance in meeting the Joint Commission’s rigorous quality and safety standards, and in demonstrating its ability to continuously evaluate and improve care. The reviewer followed several patients through their stay at Highland Hospital to observe the quality of care. She interviewed staff members, as well as patients, to gather information: she quizzed staff on the center’s patient care protocols, sought patient opinions on their care, and examined the center’s clinical practice guidelines and patient documentation to gauge staff’s adherence to quality standards. The Joint Commission will now re-examine the Evarts Joint Center every two years to re-qualify it for certification
Accredited Bariatric Center: Bariatric Surgery Center
Highland Hospital is the only hospital in the region that has earned the designation as an “Accredited Bariatric Center” by the American College of Surgeons. As a “Level 1” rated facility, Highland’s Bariatric Surgery Center is recognized for providing high-quality, complete bariatric surgical care and has a high-volume practice that can manage the most challenging and complex patients. As the recognized leader in bariatric surgery, surgeons at the Bariatric Surgery Center at Highland Hospital perform more gastric bypass and lap band procedures than any other hospital in the area.
American Stroke Association: (GWTG–Stroke) Silver Performance Achievement Award
Highland Hospital received the American Stroke Association’s Get With The GuidelinesSM–Stroke (GWTG–Stroke) Silver Performance Achievement Award. The award recognizes the Highland Hospital Stroke Center commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
Highland Hospital developed a comprehensive system for rapid diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients admitted to the Emergency Department. To receive the GWTG-Stroke Silver Performance Achievement Award, Highland consistently complied for at least one year with the requirements in the GWTG–Stroke program. This twelve-month evaluation period is the second in an ongoing self-evaluation by the hospital to continually reach the 85 percent compliance level needed to sustain this award.
American College of Radiology -Designated Breast Imaging Center of Excellence
Highland Breast Imaging Center was recently designated a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology’s (ACR) Commission on Quality and Safety and the Commission on Breast Imaging for a three-year term as a result of a recent survey by the ACR.
To attain this designation, Highland Breast Imaging had previously achieved accreditation by the ACR in stereotactic breast biopsy, breast ultrasound and ultrasound-guided breast biopsy, and mammography. The ACR Breast Imaging Center of Excellence designation signifies that Highland Breast Imaging provides these services to the Rochester community at the highest standards of the radiology profession.
