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Kentucky Hospitals Band Together to Reduce Medical Device Infections

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Thirty-three Kentucky hospitals are participating in an effort to improve patient safety and prevent infections, a collaborative headed by the Kentucky Hospital Association.

Medical devices can cause blood stream infections (BSIs) including central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) and catheter-associated urinary tract infections, according to the association, a Louisville, Ky.-based non-profit group that includes all the state’s hospitals.

Titled “On the CUSP: STOP BSI,” the project is funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The project uses the Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP), a strategic framework designed to tap into hospital staff insight while encouraging them to fix problem areas that could pose a potential risk to patients.

After applying the program’s five-step checklist in Michigan at more than 100 intensive care units, the project reduced the rate of BSIs from intravenous lines by two-thirds within three months, the association reported.

The program was implemented in Kentucky in August 2010, with participating hospitals reducing their infection rates to “well below national rates” in the first year, according to the association.

Kentucky Hospital Association is working with the hospitals to prevent infections by ensuring they have the education, training, resources and framework needed to improve safety. The association expanded the program to address catheter-associated urinary tract infections, with 20 Kentucky hospitals participating in this latest collaborative launched in September.

The Kentucky Hospital Association is working in partnership with the Health Research and Educational Trust, the Johns Hopkins University Quality and Safety Research Group and the Keystone Center for Patient Safety and Quality of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.

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CMS Wins Contract with Louisville DOC

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Correctional healthcare services provider Correctional Medical Services, Inc. was awarded a contract with the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections in Louisville, Ky., valued at more than $5 million annually. The contract is for one year with the potential for four additional one-year extensions.

“We look forward to continuing our relationship with CMS,” said Mark Bolton, corrections director at Louisville Metro Government. “Among the five organizations that bid on this contract, CMS was selected based on their experience, references, litigation history, cost effectiveness and our previous history with them.”

More than 100 CMS employees provide healthcare to 2,110 inmates through LMDC’s medical department. The department serves the youth detention center, jail complex, community corrections center and the police building.    CMS partnered with the LMDC between 1984 and 2005 and again between 2007 and 2010 to provide correctional healthcare.

CMS services at LMDC will be led by the current management team, including site medical director Kevin Smith, health services administrator Angelita Hendrickson, mental health director Lee Zellars and director of nursing Alicia Fox.

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$11.7 Million Federal Grant to Fund Health Clinic

LEXINGTON, Ky. — An $11.7 million federal grant was awarded to build a 60,000-square-foot physical and mental health treatment facility for the poor and homeless in Lexington.

The grant comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and has been in the works for more than a year. Three acres of land, valued at $2.4 million, are being donated for the future three-story building.

Plans are in the works for a primary care health clinic on the first floor and mental health and substance abuse services on the upper floors. Many of the patients served by both groups are typically poor, homeless or uninsured, but the new facility’s health clinic is planned to rival the physical space frequented by those with private insurance, becoming something more than just a last resort for the uninsured, according to a report.

The board’s residential substance abuse treatment program and crisis intervention programs are currently located on the Eastern State Hospital site at the Newtown Pike and Fourth Street and are both are scheduled to be torn down to make way for a new Bluegrass Community and Technical College Complex. In the end, the new Eastern State Hospital, already in construction, the primary care clinic and the mental health board programs will all be within easy access from one another at a primary campus.

The new building will have room for three additional practitioners who can treat up to 24 patients daily.

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Construction Begins on Medical School Tower

PIKEVILLE, Ky. — Ground breaking ceremonies were held recently at Pikeville College to celebrate the construction of a nine-story educational facility, expanded clinical skills center and cafeteria/commons scheduled to be completed in March 2012.

The facility has a projected cost of $25 million, with ancillary costs elevating the project to about $30 million. Pikeville College initiated a capital construction campaign last fall and anticipates receiving $8 million to $10 million in gifts, grants and corporate support for the project. In late September, the USDA Rural Development Administration announced that the college was selected to receive a $ 26.5 million loan to construct the new building.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear also announced a $500,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission that he helped secure to offset the new facilities and construction costs.

The new medical tower will be located on a hillside and will include two lecture halls, a gross anatomy lab, two research labs, offices, small group classrooms and student study space, according to reports.

A clinical skills training and evaluation center that will house 12 specially-equipped examination rooms will be within the building and serve as training and testing centers for students in programs using standardized patients and high-fidelity robotic patient stimulators.

The Appalachian region of Kentucky where Pikeville is situated has been referred to as being “Doctor sparse” by Rep. Harold Rogers (D-Somerset). The Pikesville College School of Medicine is preparing and encouraging students to enter primary care practices and to locate those practices in such rural areas as eastern Kentucky.

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Owensboro Replacement Project Under Way

OWENSBORO, Ky. — Construction has begun on a $420 million, 780,000-square-foot replacement hospital for Owensboro Medical Health Center.

When the project is completed, OMHC will house 447 beds and service patients from 11 Kentucky counties. The project is being built in three phases and is schedule for completion in 2013.

Designed by HGA Architects and Engineers of Milwaukee and built by Turner Construction Co., the team is utilizing an integrated project delivery to coordinate scheduling and the budget.

Situated on a 145-acre campus, the medical center will include a nine-story inpatient bed tower, a three-story diagnostic and treatment building, a 30-bed transitional care unit, an emergency department organized around pods of care, and a women’s center with dedicated drop-off and entry points. OMHC will also feature a heart center, a neuro-diagnostics area, and outpatient diagnostics facility.

Linking the diagnostic and treatment building and the curving bed tower is a nine-story spine that houses inpatient support and administrative spaces. These structures are organized around a central courtyard that provides views and natural lighting.

“HGA introduced lean design principles into the planning and development process to enable Owensboro to achieve a lean business model,” says Kurt Spiering, vice president and principal with HGA in Milwaukee. “The new hospital will be one of the leading medical centers in Kentucky offering state-of-the-art technology and advanced delivery processes to maximize the patient experience.”

The bed tower will have twin 24-bed units on each medical floor, designed with an emphasis on staff efficiency and patient and staff safety. Design features include same-handed rooms, dedicated family spaces in each patient room, and two-leaf room entry and patient toilet doors.

OMHC will have a number of technological innovations, including registration kiosks, wireless staff communication tools, electronic medical records, barcode medication administration, and a patient education network.

Slated to achieve LEED Silver rating, the medical center will utilize locally harvested materials to create warm, healing interior and exterior environments. A series of courtyards will provide interior daylight and green roofs are planned for the women’s courtyard, the bed tower, and a connector hallway. Outdoors, bioswales, native grasses and plants, and a restored adjacent flood plain will mitigate storm water runoff and reduce irrigation needs.

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