Quality Measures and Results

We’ve always been passionate about providing quality health care. But since 2004 we’ve had a relentless goal of continuous improvement because high-quality care is the most cost-effective care. That means sharing best practices to provide safe, effective care to our patients. It means coordinating care to help improve continuity of treatment and eliminate duplication of services. The result has been a gradual enhancement of our patient care process in many areas.

Examples include making follow up phone calls after a patient is discharged to reduce preventable hospital readmissions. Or using our system wide electronic medical record to keep track of our diabetic patients who are overdue for an eye or foot exam - and reach out to get them scheduled for an appointment.

These are just two examples of the many enhancements we've implemented that are improving the quality of the care we provide. While it’s still too early to see dollars saved, we are starting to see a tangible, positive impact on the health of our patients. 

Quality Goals for 2009-2011

Hawai‘i Pacific Health has identified key improvement targets to enhance clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction. They reflect a similar focus adopted by the nation’s finest hospitals.

• Eliminate catheter-related urinary tract infections
• Eliminate catheter-related bloodstream infections
• Eliminate stage III and IV hospital-acquired pressure ulcers
• Reduce surgical site infections to the lowest 25th percentile nationally
• Always perform hand hygiene

Read our Quality Report for fiscal year 2011.

Benchmarks of Success

Hawai‘i Pacific Health has established a strong culture of patient safety and measurable clinical outcomes. We’ve implemented key initiatives in Rounding and Discharge Phone Calls, among many other best practices.

• Hawai‘i Pacific Health hospitals routinely deliver care that is better than state and national results in heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care.
• Straub patients of cardiovascular surgery are assured a post-operative infection rate that is among the lowest in the country for the past six years.
• Our intensive care units have reduced the risk of infections. As a system, we have succeeded in nearly eliminating infections related to ventilator use and bloodstream infections related to central bloodstream catheters.
• Kapi‘olani Medical Center’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit cares for the smallest and sickest babies in Hawai‘i and the Pacific Region. Thanks to excellent teamwork, rates of complications from being born too early are much lower than national benchmarks.

Core Measures

Sustaining and improving the quality of care provided is a daily challenge for all hospitals. At Hawai‘i Pacific Health, our hospitals continue to surpass the state and national averages in the key areas of Heart Attack Care, Heart Failure Care, Pneumonia Care, and Surgical Care. For more information, visit Hospital Compare. Publicly reported quality data on the Hospital Compare website reports the scores for individual indicators. Hawai‘i Pacific Health shows core measure results as aggregate scores, rather than individual indicators, because the total package of care matters to patients, and reflects our ability to deliver all of the care needed.

Heart Attack Care

Pali Momi, Straub Clinic & Hospital, and Wilcox Memorial Hospital have all been recognized for high levels of achievement in their delivery of heart attack care. We measure our performance by these important components of care:

• Did we make sure that a patient with a heart attack received aspirin on arrival and was instructed to continue taking aspirin after discharge?
• Did we discuss the dangers of smoking (with patients who smoke)?
• Did we assess patients for who needed certain medications to lower their risk of a subsequent heart attack?
• Did we make sure patients who should receive those medications were prescribed correctly?
• Did we give clotbuster drugs quickly to patient who needed them? Some patients need them quickly to open up their heart blood vessels. How often did we do that within 90 minutes of arrival in our emergency rooms?

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Surgery Care

Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children, Pali Momi, Straub Clinic & Hospital, and Wilcox Memorial Hospital all focus on making sure that patients who undergo surgery receive the correct care to reduce their risk of complications. We measure our performance by these important components of care:

• Did we choose the correct antibiotic, as defined in standard guidelines? Did we give that antibiotic at the right time before surgery started, and stop the antibiotic when it was no longer helpful in reducing the risk of infection?
• Did we correctly identify those patients who regularly take a medication that must be continued during surgery to lower their risk of heart attack? Did we give those patients their medications?
• For heart surgery patients, did we make sure their blood sugar was correctly controlled?
• If we needed to remove hair at the surgical site, did we do it correctly?
• If we needed to place a catheter in the bladder for surgery, did we remove it promptly, following standard guidelines?
• Did we make sure to manage the patient’s body temperature during surgery?
• Did we correctly follow guidelines to reduce the risk of dangerous blood clots that form during and after surgery?

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Pediatric Asthma Care

Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children has been recognized for its high levels of achievement in the delivery of pediatric asthma care. We measure our performance by these important components of care:

• Did we make sure that a pediatric patient with asthma received steroids when indicated and was instructed to continue taking steroids after discharge?
• Did we make sure that a pediatric patient with asthma received relievers when indicated and was instructed to continue taking relievers after discharge?