Page 9 - Demo

Right diagnosis, right antibiotic, right duration
Pneumonia is a common infection, yet diagnosis is not always straightforward.
“What looks like pneumonia doesn’t always turn out to be pneumonia,” said Mark Jones, M.D., FCCP, clinical leader of Christiana Care Pulmonary Associates.
Other conditions, such as swallowing diffi- culties in the elderly, can mimic the symp- toms of pneumonia or pulmonary infection, which further complicates diagnosis. Even with the support of imaging and laboratory tests, Dr. Jones said doctors are only able to determine the type of pneumonia — wheth- er bacterial or viral or, more rarely, fungal — in about one third of all cases.
Christiana Care hospitalists, intensivists, pulmonologists, infectious disease specialists and all who treat pulmonary infection share a diligence to get the diagnosis right, to treat with the correct antibiotic for the correct length of time.
The Infectious Disease and Pharmacy teams monitor and post patterns of antibiotic use throughout the hospital
and stay on top of national guidelines
for both type and duration of antibiotics to minimize adverse reactions. Their leadership in antibiotic stewardship has a huge impact on Christiana Care’s success in ensuring patient safety in pneumonia care, according to Dr. Jones.
The result is Christiana Care’s ascent to the upper national echelon for patient safety in pneumonia care on the CareChex 2018 rating.
“We recognize there are many benefits to using antibiotics, but like many things in medicine, they can be a two-edged sword with risks,” said Dr. Jones. “We need to use antibiotics appropriately so we don’t expose patients to untoward effects.”
The formula for success in trauma care
For the past two decades, Christiana
Care’s trauma team has helped create and enhance Delaware’s statewide trauma care system, designed to ensure that the right patients get to the right place for care in the right amount of time. As the only regional Level-I (highest capability) trauma center
Medical Director Kevin M. Bradley, M.D., FACS, FCCM, said the top CareChex 2018 rating for patient safety in trauma care corroborates the high honors Christiana Care’s Trauma Program consistently achieves through the American College of Surgeons Trauma Quality Improvement Project (TQIP). Christiana Care continually fares well on TQIP’s risk-adjusted data comparison across similar trauma centers of major categories of injuries, mortality and complications, he said. As a result,
the health system’s focus is always on improving quality of care, training and collaboration.
As in other surgical realms, high-volume trauma centers tend to produce higher quality outcomes over time, said Dr. Bradley. There are more than 4,000 trauma cases at Christiana Care each year.
According to Dr. Bradley, the formula
for success in trauma care is Christiana Care’s combination of a highly clinically experienced team of trauma providers recognized locally, regionally and nationally; excellent trauma nursing care; seamless collaboration with Emergency Medicine and consultative colleagues
in neurologic and orthopaedic surgery;
a hospitalists program; a robust injury prevention program; strong administrative support and a vigorous performance improvement process that strives for opportunities to take the program from great to even greater.
“If you are injured within our region, you will be well served within the State of Delaware and at Christiana Care,”
Dr. Bradley said. C O N T I N U E D
| Quality & Safety
between Philadelphia and Baltimore, Christiana Hospital offers the highest level of trauma readiness, 24 hours a day, every day of the year, for both adult and pediatric patients. Wilmington Hospital is a State of Delaware-Designated Provisional Level III trauma center.
It takes a team of extraordinary people, working together, guided by common values, to achieve No. 1 in the nation.
FOCUS • FEBRUARY 2018 7