Keith Churchwell, M.D., shares a laugh with the audience at the Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute’s recent town hall meeting. (photo by Joe Howell)
VHVI’s achievements reviewed at meeting
Vanderbilt Heart & Vascular Institute held its quarterly town hall recently where executive leaders summarized growth, quality and service for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.
Held at a different location and time — noon in Light Hall — the meeting drew a record crowd, which Keith Churchwell, M.D., executive director and chief medical officer of VHVI, welcomed before outlining volume for key components:
• Discharges were at budget. Inpatient and observation unit discharges totaled 8,500 for the year, which sets a VHVI record, Churchwell said.
• Visits to both the main campus and outreach clinics came in above budget at 93,400. “If you think you’ve been working hard, you are correct,” Churchwell assured his colleagues.
• Cardiac Cath Lab procedures totaled 18,050 while the Electrophysiology Lab handled 6,219 procedures.
• Cardiac Surgery volume, which saw 400 cases in 2005, saw 1,025 adult cases in the last year and continues to be the largest adult surgery program in the area.
• Vascular surgery volume was robust at 1,132 cases.
In terms of quality, VHVI is at about 85 percent compliance for hand washing, and Churchwell reiterated that the goal remains 100 percent.
“The objective is to have no infections from us causing our patients to get sick. This is extremely important to overall patient care,” Churchwell said.
Robin Steaban, administrative director, announced that VHVI received the ACTION Registry Gold Performance Achievement Award, which recognizes commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients.
She acknowledged the quality team of Phil Altice, Brittany Cunningham, Michelle Dickens and Tanya Mason, who collect and submit quality data for the ACC registry.
“They sit for hours with charts and put the data in. They live in the shadows and make a difference every day, and we thank them for helping us to achieve this,” Steaban said of the group.
Doug Sawyer, M.D., Ph.D., chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, acknowledged Connie Lewis, CRNP (heart failure), as the recipient of the PRC Top Performer Award for receiving a 100 percent excellence rating on the patient satisfaction survey.
The Division of Nuclear Cardiology also received this honor.
Sawyer also mentioned the Fall Cardiovascular Research open house, which will be held Tuesday, Sept. 27, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in Medical Research Building IV, room P450.