ERH wins PRI's 2012 Best Practices in Risk Management and Patient Safety Award

Physicians' Reciprocal Insurers (PRI), the second largest medical malpractice insurer in New York state, today presented Ellenville Regional Hospital with its 2012 Best Practices in Risk Management and Patient Safety Award. Richmond University Medical Center and a collaborative project by St. Francis Hospital and Mercy Medical Center received honorable mentions. PRI established the awards in 2011 to promote the knowledge and adoption of best practices in these areas to benefit the healthcare industry as a whole.

Ellenville Regional Hospital (ERH), a 25-bed rural hospital, delivers quality healthcare services to a medically underserved community in Wawarsing, New York. ERH developed a medication reconciliation and patient safety project to improve health literacy, as well as patient adherence to medication regimens through clinical pharmacy services. The services have been provided to over 1,500 people as of December 2011, and have resulted in a significant reduction in medication-related events to a very low 0.1 occurrences per 1,000 doses dispensed.

"We are grateful to PRI for recognizing the efforts of our team here at Ellenville Regional Hospital," said Ashima Butler, Director of Administrative and Medical Staff Services. "PRI's Best Practices Program is a platform through which we can share our work on improving health literacy, and we appreciate the opportunity to participate in such an important initiative."

Honorable Mentions

Richmond University Medical Center, a 500-bed teaching hospital located in Staten Island, developed an electronic system that interfaces with its clinical laboratory system and pharmacy database to help increase medication safety by decreasing mistakes. Through a bar coding technology process, the hospital has decreased medication errors that reach patients by almost 90 percent in 2011.

In Long Island, St. Francis Hospital, a 364-bed hospital in Roslyn, and Mercy Medical Center, a 375-bed hospital in Rockville Center, developed an electronic incident reporting system to identify serious patient and visitor incidents. Through the system, the hospital staff can immediately identify, track and report problems, and quickly implement corrective action, ultimately improving patient satisfaction and quality of care.

"I want to personally congratulate all of our honorees for the innovative programs they have created to improve patient health and safety," said Anthony Bonomo, CEO of PRI. "Commitment to patient safety and to risk management is the foundation of our business, and we have made promoting best practices a priority. We are privileged to recognize establishments who are working towards this same objective, and look forward to playing an active role in helping promote education for the entire industry."