Honoree: Home-Based Care Program, Cigna Medical Group

IHome-based Care Program, CIGNA Medical Group, 2011 Health Care Leadership Awardsn response to investigations concerning why some patients under a Medicare Advantage plan weren’t returning to their doctors, Cigna Medical Group established the Home-Based Care Program in 2004.

The program was created to assist these home-bound patients and to treat those who had recently experienced a severe health event and were about to face gaps in care.

The program has a team of physicians, physician assistants, registered nurses, practical nurses and social workers who visit patients in their homes to provide medical care. They monitor vital signs, provide treatment, review prescriptions, help patients take medications correctly, evaluate nutritional needs and coordinate with others to arrange community services.These interactions are recorded in an electronic health record and are shared with the patient’s primary care physician.

Patients in the program are maintaining, and in some cases improving, their health. There has been a 30 percent decrease in acute hospital admissions since the program began, due in large part to an improved ability to prevent life-threatening or severe changes in home-bound patients’ conditions.

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Mark Smith, System Director of Simulation/Innovation, Banner HealthFinalist: Mark Smith, M.D., System Director of Simulation/Innovation, Banner Health

In 2005, Dr. Mark Smith conceptualized and developed the first of Banner Health’s simulation centers at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center. He currently serves as the system director of simulation and innovation for Banner.

Banner Health, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health systems, hopes to reduce medical errors and improve patient care by using high-tech mannequins that help simulate a variety of medical conditions and emergencies in its educational training centers. In 2009, Banner opened a second medical simulation training center in Mesa with more than 70 mannequins and a full-size emergency department, intensive care unit, pediatric/neonatal ICU and operating room.

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Finalist: Water Watchers Program, Phoenix Children’s Hospital

Water Watchers Program, Phoenix Children's HospitalArizona has the country’s second-highest number of child drownings. This devastating statistic is why the Injury Prevention Center at Phoenix Children’s Hospital created the Water Watchers program.
Water Watchers raises awareness about water safety, provides information about child drowning risks and teaches drowning prevention through a variety of outreach events throughout the year.

Water Watchers was co-founded by Druann Letter and Carol Achs, the mother and grandmother of Weston Letter, who drowned in 1998 at the age of three. The program has been recognized by the National Drowning Prevention Alliance, as well as the National Water Safety Congress.

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