EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland received the Washington State Hospital Association’s (WSHA) 2016 Achieving Best Care Award for the health system’s achievements in a broad variety of patient safety measures. WSHA also recognized EvergreenHealth Monroe hospital for its patient safety efforts, making the EvergreenHealth affiliates two of just 11 award recipients statewide.

“On behalf of all the exemplary employees and providers who care for patients across the EvergreenHealth system, we are honored to be recognized by WSHA as a leader in our state for our commitment to absolute patient safety,” said Robert Malte, CEO of EvergreenHealth. “We’re also very proud that our sister facility, EvergreenHealth Monroe, was recognized among the state’s top performers as well – demonstrating our system’s dedication to efforts that enhance patients safety.”

‘Achieving Best Care’ recognizes providers’ commitment to delivering high-quality care and consistently improving safety and outcomes – a key component of industrywide advances.

“When it comes to our hospitals’ achievements in patient safety, Washington state has so much to be proud of,” said WSHA Senior Vice President for Patient Safety Carol Wagner. “We’re working on the biggest challenges of health care delivery, and our hospitals and health systems are consistently pushing for higher achievements on more measures. We’re glad to be able to give them the recognition they deserve.”

Top-performing hospitals and healthcare systems achieved high scores for patient safety in key service areas, including the treatment and prevention of infections, fall reduction, successful completion of early elective deliveries, the prevention of sepsis and the reduction of pressure ulcers.

“These are all important issues to patients and their families,” Wagner said. “They’re also the focus of national efforts to improve health care delivery. We’re part of the national effort to identify and implement best practices in all care settings, and get incidences of these down to zero. We’re proud of the progress we’ve made, but we’re also acutely aware that the road ahead is uphill.”

Eric Jensen, EvergreenHealth Monroe chief administrative officer added, “We’re honored to join EvergreenHealth Medical Center and the other nine facilities across Washington state in recognition of critical efforts to move patient safety forward.”

WSHA defines top performers as those achieving the highest scores in reducing patient harm in key strategy areas. If the hospital does not provide a service such as obstetric services or surgery, it was not counted against them in the award scoring, which was based on the size of the hospital, and whether the hospital was in the top 25 percent in comparison to others in their size category.

For more information about WSHA’s patient safety programs, visit www.wsha.org/quality-safety/.

To learn more about EvergreenHealth’s commitment to quality and safety and exceptional care, visit www.evergreenhealth.com.