Allina Health System Receives Patient Safety Award from Minnesota Hospital and Healthcare Partnership

Minneapolis, MN 01/25/2001--

Allina Health System has been awarded the Minnesota Hospital and Healthcare Partnership (MHHP) Patient Safety Award for the year 2000 for its collaborative effort to reduce medical errors throughout seven hospitals in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

“We focused our creative efforts on designing and implementing key patient safety topics that would enhance the care for our patients,” says Barbara Balik, United Hospital administrator and division executive of patient safety for Allina Health System. “Our three-year goal is to create an environment free of accidental injury. It was exciting to see the collaboration effort of our hospitals’ care improvement teams and their commitment to improving the health of the communities we serve.”

Each of the hospitals chose a different project, which resulted in seven different improvement initiatives. The hospital care improvement teams led the overall initiatives, provided structure for the projects, and measured improvement. When the initiatives were proven effective, they were replicated throughout the hospitals.

The care improvement projects identified were medication safety educational programs for newly hired nurses, development of a standard chemotherapy order form, and improvement in legibility of orders. Other projects implemented were automating medication administration records and improving the medical transcription accuracy.

The Patient Safety Award recognizes members who have taken steps to improve the health and care of patients. Judging was based on improving the hospital culture to ensure patient safety, establishing an infrastructure that encourages learning from previous accidents and applicability to other hospitals through innovative, creative and effective patient safety programs.

Minneapolis-based Allina Health System is a non-profit, integrated health care organization serving communities throughout Minnesota, western Wisconsin and eastern North and South Dakota. Allina Health System owns and operates two divisions: Allina Hospitals & Clinics and Medica, its health plan division. Allina Hospitals & Clinics can be found online at www.allina.com and the latest health information is at www.medformation.com.

###