Three awards were presented to South Peninsula Hospital health care providers and teams, part of this year’s Statewide Quality and Patient Safety Awards, during the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association’s conference held in Girdwood on Sept. 24-25.
According to an Oct. 3 press release from AHHA, their annual Healthcare Champion awards celebrate frontline staff, advance practice providers, physicians and health care teams making “significant impacts” on patient care and health outcomes for Alaskans.
The awards presented to SPH staff recognized efforts that “go above and beyond to improve workplace safety, implement new processes based on high-reliability principles and provide outstanding clinical care for community members.”
OB director Joelle Burdick received the 2024 Front-line Staff Outstanding Performance Award for her work in implementing new safety and security processes and protocols in SPH’s obstetrics department.
Meredith Pearson, Burdick’s coworker who nominated her for the award, said in the release that Burdick “has made SPH a safer place to deliver a baby and to work as an OB nurse, while maintaining the hometown hospital appeal that many families desire.”
SPH’s Stroke Committee received the 2024 Innovation in Patient Safety and Quality Award. According to the release, the standard of care for a suspected stroke patient includes having a CT scan performed and interpreted within 45 minutes of presentation to the emergency department. SPH’s multidisciplinary stroke team, led by the hospital’s emergency and imaging departments, was awarded for their development of several “highly reliable” processes related to staffing, communication and evaluation that have helped them to meet and exceed the standard of care.
The Stroke Committee has improved quarter after quarter, resulting in a 100% pass rate for the fourth quarter of 2023 — “exceptional performance made possible by a team that laid the groundwork by developing quality programs,” the release states.
Dr. William Bell was presented with the Paton Award, which honors physicians with 40 years or more of “outstanding” medical service to Alaska residents. Dr. Bell, currently an active member of SPH’s medical staff, has provided care across the Homer community for more than 40 years and serves as the medical director for Long Term Care, Employee Health, and Infection Prevention.
Find more information at alaskahha.org/conference.
South Peninsula Hospital’s Dr. William Bell is pictured in this undated photograph, provided by the Alaska Hospital and Healthcare Association
