Johnston Memorial Hospital wins 2018 FPM Award for Practice Improvement

The family medicine residency program and family physician-led hospitalist team at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon, Va., have won this year’s FPM Award for Practice Improvement for their collaborative efforts to reduce chest pain admissions. The award was presented during this year's Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Conference on Practice Improvement in Tampa, Fla.

Shyam Odeti, MD, who is residency core faculty, inpatient medical director, and hospitalist director, accepted the award, which was presented by Amy Mullins, MD, AAFP medical director for quality. Dr. Odeti and his colleagues implemented evidence-based approaches that reduced chest pain observation admissions by 61 percent over three years and resulted in several other significantly positive outcomes as well. He described three key aspects of their approach:

• Adopting HEART (History, ECG, Age, Risk factors and Troponin) Score as a clinical decision guide to appropriately risk-stratify patients with chest pain and working with IT staff to integrate chest pain pathways into their software.

• Including all partners in the care of chest pain patients – emergency physicians, resident physicians, cardiology team, IT staff, and nursing – in a Rapid Improvement Event to develop an algorithm and standard of work based on close cardiology follow-up and direct stress test scheduling and follow-up.

• Conducting an extensive education and communication effort using educational sessions, meetings, email, posters, and monthly review of patient cases.

“Family physicians’ training and skills enable us to lead changes to improve quality for our patients and our organizations,” Odeti said. “This work could not have happened without family medicine.”

 For more information on the FPM Award for Practice Improvement: http://bit.ly/2BBBHjU