Three Penn Medicine hospitals receive 2024 HAP achievement awards

Three Penn Medicine hospitals were honored among their peers with 2024 Achievement Awards from The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP).

Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health (LG Health), Pennsylvania Hospital (PAH), and Chester County Hospital (CCH) were three of 13 hospitals across the state recognized in the annual awards program. The awards recognize hospitals and health systems that are taking innovative approaches to strengthening safety and quality of care, enhancing operations and patients’ experience, and partnering with their communities to address public health needs.

Food Farmacy program receives top honor for bold innovation in food insecurity and health

Lancaster General Health’s entry, “One-Stop Shopping: Food Farmacy Program Pairs Nutrition Counseling with Access To Healthy Food,” received the Living the Vision Award, HAP’s top honor, celebrating innovation and bold interventions that exemplify the vision of a healthy Pennsylvania. LG Health’s Food Farmacy program aims to improve health by providing education on nutrition-related knowledge, skills, and dietary habits to patients who may be experiencing food insecurity, or struggling to access enough or the right kind of food, to improve overall health and manage and prevent chronic diseases to live an active, healthy life.

The Food Farmacy team works closely with patients’ health care providers, as well as local food pantry partners. Patients meet regularly with an LG Health registered dietitian at a food pantry, where they receive nutrition counseling and “shop” the shelves for healthy food for themselves and their families. What’s more, there is no cost to the patient.

Workforce award recognizes program supporting new night-shift nurses

Pennsylvania Hospital received the Workforce Innovators Award for its entry, “Clinical Nurse Ambassadors: Innovative Peer Support Improving Well-being, Clinical Practice, and Retention Among the Nursing Community on Night Shift.” Launched in December 2022, the Clinical Nurse 1 Ambassador Program helps ease the transition from the classroom to the bedside for new-to-practice nurses working on night shift.

“Over the course of three years, we’ve seen the number of new-to-practice nurses more than double at PAH,” said Florrie Vanek, MSN, RN, NE-BC, director of Nursing Education, Professional Practice, and the Magnet Program at Pennsylvania Hospital. “We have to be innovative and creative to support this shift in the nursing landscape, especially offering support to the night shift, where CN1s typically start their careers and experience new lifestyle changes.”

A team of five Clinical Ambassadors, all clinical nurses from various units, rotates throughout the week to support a roster of new nurses at the hospital. Ambassadors check in on how the new nurses are feeling and discuss issues such as creating a healthy sleep schedule, essential for those working the night shift. The ambassadors also answer questions regarding technical skills, such as refreshing how to insert an IV or chest tube, problem solving and decision making in patient care, and offering other personal or professional advice for career development. Having seasoned clinical nurses serve as ambassadors forms more personal connections with CN1s, as the ambassadors understand what it’s like to be in that same position, explained Vanek.

The Workforce Innovators recognition from HAP celebrates hospitals engaging the health care workforce through projects developed to attract, develop, and retain the best workforce.

Postpartum program for Hispanic patients receives recognition for innovation in quality of care

Chester County Hospital received the Excellence In Care Award for the initiative “Improving Postpartum Outcomes and Decreasing Health Care Disparities in Hispanic Patients.”

The primary goal of the initiative is improving postpartum outcomes and addressing health care disparities in CCH Hispanic patients. The secondary goal, which is critical to the long-term success of this initiative, is to build trust with the Hispanic population.

“From my perspective, when you’re doing health equity work, you really need to meet patients where they are. So that was the main push for us to meet the patients out in the community and on a more personal level in the hospital,” said Katie Costantini, MSN, RNC-MNN, a co-lead on this initiative.

The Excellence in Care Award celebrates hospitals’ and health systems’ innovative approaches to improving the quality of care for patients and the community.

More about the 2024 HAP Achievement Awards

In total, there were 93 entries for this year’s Achievement Awards. The Living the Vision Award is selected from the entire pool of entries across all categories and size divisions.

Additional information about the awards program and detailed descriptions of the winning projects are available on the HAP website.