Parkland Hospitals

2020

Parkland Health & Hospital System received the 2020 Heart of Healthcare Award from the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) of North Texas. The award recognizes Parkland’s frontline healthcare workers heroic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parkland’s HOMES Program successfully completed its 2020 annual review for sustaining the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition. NCQA’s Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) Recognition program is the most widely adopted PCMH evaluation program in the country. Approximately 13,000 practices (with 67,000 clinicians) are recognized by NCQA.  

Matt Leveno, MD and Pam Farrington, RN were honored with 2020 United Nations Global Leadership Day Awards by the Dallas Chapter of the United Nations Foundation for their heroic efforts leading the multidisciplinary healthcare team caring for COVID-19 patients in the Tactical Care Unit at Parkland Memorial Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic

Parkland Health & Hospital System has earned 2020 CHIME Digital Health Most Wired™ recognition as a certified level 8, receiving two quality awards, the Acute Care and Ambulatory setting. The CHIME Digital Health Most Wired program conducts an annual survey to assess how effectively healthcare organizations apply core and advanced technologies into their clinical and business programs to improve health and care in their communities. It is the fifth time in recent years that Parkland has been named a Most Wired organization.

Parkland Health & Hospital System announced it has passed the interim one year Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) assessment required to maintain HITRUST certification. Parkland is required to recertify every two years. The interim assessment is conducted by a third party assessor to ensure Parkland is meeting the criteria required for HITRUST certification. HITRUST was founded in 2007 and uses the “HITRUST approach” to help organizations from all sectors, especially healthcare, effectively manage data, information risk and compliance. To become certified, an organization must meet certain security standards within the 19 Common Security Framework (CSF) domains and 135 specific controls. The certification helps organizations that handle Protected Health Information (PHI) manage cybersecurity risks and improve their security posture.

Parkland Health & Hospital System has received the 2020 “LGBTQ Healthcare Equality Top Performer” designation by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation, the educational arm of the country’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) civil rights organization.  The findings were part of HRC Foundation’s 13th annual Healthcare Equality Index released on Aug. 31, 2020. The survey of healthcare facilities encourages equal care for LGBTQ Americans by evaluating inclusive policies and practices related to LGBTQ patients, visitors and employees. A record 765 healthcare facilities participated in the HEI 2020 survey.

Parkland Health & Hospital System received the 2020 America’s Essential Hospitals Gage Quality Award Honorable Mention that recognizes activities to improve the quality of care or that mitigates threats to patient safety. Parkland conducted penicillin allergy studies of hospitalized patients to verify reported allergy to penicillin. The study that found 92.5 percent were allergy-free. The program was recognized as an innovative and easy-to-implement approach to improve safety and lower costs and an important contribution for the entire healt care sector searching for strategies to reduce antibiotic resistance.

Parkland Health & Hospital System was named a Finalist in D CEO’s 2020 Nonprofit and Corporate Citizenship Awards for its vital role in providing COVID-19 testing services throughout Dallas County in partnership with the city and county throughout the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Parkland Health & Hospital System was named to the Washington Monthly “Honor Roll: 20 Best Hospitals for America” list for 2020, ranking as #9 best hospital in the U.S. The Washington Monthly ranks hospitals on how well they save lives, save money, and serve everyone. These institutions performed above average (typically far above) in each of three broad categories: patient outcomes (mortality etc.), civic leadership (treating lower-income and minority patients etc.), and value of care (avoiding overtreatment).These rankings were created in partnership the Lown Institute, a non-partisan health care think tank. 

Parkland Health & Hospital System was ranked third in Dallas-Fort Worth, according to U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Hospitals report. For 31 years, U.S. News & World Report has evaluated hospitals and specialties across the nation and ranked 134 hospitals out of 4,500 in one specialty, and 563 in the regional rankings. The rankings focus on recognizing hospitals that excel in treating the most complex patients. Parkland’s Nephrology program was ranked nationally as the 30th-best nephrology program according to the “America’s Best Hospitals” rankings published by U.S. News & World Report.

Parkland Health & Hospital System received the American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines-Heart Failure Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring heart failure patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines founded in the latest scientific evidence. The goal is speeding recovery and reducing hospital readmissions for heart failure patients. Parkland earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and aggressive risk-reduction therapies. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their heart failure and overall health, scheduling a follow-up visit and other care transition interventions.

Parkland Health & Hospital System received the American Heart Association Mission: Lifeline NSTEMI and STEMI Receiving Gold Achievement Awards for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer heart attacks.  The American Heart Association’s Mission: Lifeline program’s goal is to reduce system barriers to prompt treatment for heart attacks, beginning with the 9-1-1 call, to EMS transport and continuing through hospital treatment and discharge. The initiative provides tools, training and other resources to support heart attack care following protocols from the most recent evidence-based treatment guidelines. Parkland earned the award by meeting specific criteria and standards of performance for the quick and appropriate treatment of heart attack patients by providing emergency procedures to re-establish blood flow to blocked arteries when needed.

Parkland Health & Hospital System has received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes the hospital’s commitment to ensuring stroke patients receive the most appropriate treatment according to nationally recognized, research-based guidelines based on the latest scientific evidence. Parkland earned the award by meeting specific quality achievement measures for the diagnosis and treatment of stroke patients at a set level for a designated period. These measures include evaluation of the proper use of medications and other stroke treatments aligned with the most up-to-date, evidence-based guidelines with the goal of speeding recovery and reducing death and disability for stroke patients. Before discharge, patients should also receive education on managing their health, scheduling a follow-up visit and other care transition interventions.

Parkland Health & Hospital System was named to the Honor Roll of Top 20 Hospitals for America, ranking #9 in Washington Monthly’s 2020 Best Hospitals for America list. The publication teamed up with the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan healthcare think tank, to create the “Best Hospitals for America” ranking. It  used data drawn from the Lown Institute Hospitals Index not only to measure how well hospitals care for their patients but also to gauge the contributions hospitals make to the country and their communities. The rankings use three main criteria. First, patient outcomes: a hospital’s patient mortality, safety, and satisfaction record. Second, civic leadership: the degree to which a hospital treats patients with the same income and other demographics as its surrounding community; how much it contributes in community benefit, from providing charity care to building and operating free clinics; and how much it pays its senior executive compared to its frontline workers. Third, value of care: how much a hospital overuses low-value tests and procedures.

Vivian Johnson, PharmD, MBA, FASHP, Senior Vice President of Clinical Services was appointed to the ASHP Task Force on Racial Diversity, Equity and Inclusion by The American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP)

In Style Magazine named Parkland nurse Dolores Diaz, RN, Homeless Outreach Medical Services Program Nurse Manager, as one of the nation’s frontline healthcare heroes representing the state of Texas in The Badass 50. Diaz was recognized for her tireless leadership helping set up COVID-19 testing centers across Dallas County.

Parkland Health & Hospital System has been named a Stage 7 certified member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Adoption Model for Analytics Maturity (AMAM). Parkland is one of only six organizations in the world to receive this designation, joining an elite group that focuses on a “data-driven/analytics first” culture.

According to HIMSS, Analytic Maturity Models are designed to help healthcare organizations “cross the chasm from technologically-equipped to technologically-evolved.” The models enable organizations to measure, assess and improve processes in a systematic way, focusing on four key areas – data content, analytics, infrastructure and governance. This holistic approach to planning the utilization of data that is collected in an electronic medical record (EMR) means best practices are employed as programs are being developed, reducing expensive rework.

Stage 7 represents the pinnacle of applying analytics to support patient-specific prescriptive care. Healthcare organizations with this designation can leverage advanced data sets, such as genomic and biometrics data, to support the uniquely tailored and specific prescriptive healthcare treatments of personalized medicine. These organizations can deliver mass customization of care combined with prescriptive analytics.

Six registered nurses at Parkland Health & Hospital System are among those being honored as 2020 Dallas/Fort Worth Great 100 Nurses. The program has been celebrating nursing excellence for 30 years, honoring nurses from all practice areas including acute care, sub-acute care, school nursing, nurse leaders, academics and more. The Parkland RNs earning recognition are:

• Alma Rivera, BSN, RN, IBCLC, Lactation
• Charles Okpara, APRN, FNP-BC, Oncology & Hematology Infusion Clinic
• Kelly Hogue, MSN, RN, North Texas Poison Center, located at Parkland
• Marivel Segura, BSN, RN, WCC, Wound Care
• Marjorie Qunit-Bouzid, MPA, RN, NEA-BC, Women and Infant’s Specialty Health
• Noami Cavett, MSN, BA, BSN, RN, Nursing Administration

The Center for Health Design recognized Parkland with Evidence-Based Design (EBD) Touchstone Award GOLD: New Parkland Hospital, submitted by NPH Research Coalition. One of the busiest public safety-net hospitals, Parkland serves the full spectrum of patient populations from neonates to the elderly and is also a teaching hospital. The greenfield project, a full-replacement hospital, was designed and built over six years and involved a large, interdisciplinary team whose focus evolved during the last decade from pre-planning to post-occupancy evaluation. Jurors noted that the project is an outstanding model of interdisciplinary collaborative work and applauded the depth and breadth of the team. The EBD award was born out of a desire to both encourage and recognize the use of the eight-step EBD process, from defining the evidence-based goals and objectives to measuring and sharing post-occupancy performance results. Submissions are judged on their exemplary achievement across the three touchstones of the EBD process: collaboration among an interdisciplinary team and stakeholder education, engagement, and development; evaluation and application of found research to link design to outcomes and measurement of results; and sharing of how the EBD process was applied and the knowledge disseminated as well as its potential for application on future projects.

The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) recently conferred a silver-level Beacon Award for Excellence to the Medicine Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at Parkland Memorial Hospital. The Beacon Award for Excellence — a significant milestone on the path to exceptional patient care and healthy work environments — recognizes unit caregivers who successfully improve patient outcomes and align practices with AACN’s six Healthy Work Environment Standards. Units that achieve this three-year, three-level award with a gold, silver or bronze designation meet national criteria consistent with Magnet® Recognition, the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the National Quality Healthcare Award.