Saint Elizabeth has recently again received the Recognition for Quality Award from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska (BCBSNE) “for delivering the best health care possible to people living in Nebraska.”  The goal of this award program, according to BCBSNE, is to promote quality of care provided across Nebraska “by recognizing those facilities which have participated in and achieved notable levels of performance in nationally-established, evidence-based health care quality programs.”

BCBSNE is specifically recognizing Saint Elizabeth Regional Medical Center for their achievements and full commitment to the “5 Million Lives (Saved) Campaign” for all of 2008.  The health care improvement initiatives in this program, according to BCBSNE, are set by the federal government, health insurers, national health care and medical professional organizations and measure, report, improve and monitor the care given to their patients and BCBSNE members.

One accomplishment of Saint Elizabeth medical teams during that multi-year “5 million Lives (Saved)” initiative was successfully addressing an infection that accounts for the highest levels of worsening health conditions, even resulting in deaths in hospitalized ICU patients in the US, according to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

It is called Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) and the Saint Elizabeth Critical Care Unit went a total of 1,022 days with ZERO VAP infections! That’s just days short of three years (1,095 days).

Saint Elizabeth CEO and Divisional Vice President Bob Lanik is proud of receiving this award and of the medical center’s employees, saying “Saint Elizabeth efforts in the 5 Million Lives Campaign were truly team efforts where people across various departments successfully focused united efforts on providing the most excellent patient care possible. We thank Blue Cross Blue Shied for their award and for recognizing the high quality patient-centered health care we provide at Saint Elizabeth.”