West Monroe, LA – Glenwood Regional Medical Center has received the 2010 Louisiana Hospital Capstone Quality Award, presented by eQHealth Solutions, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Louisiana. This award recognizes Glenwood as one of only 38 hospitals in the state for achieving certain improvements in the quality of health care given to their patients.

Previously titled the Louisiana Hospital Quality Awards (platinum, gold, silver and bronze levels), the Louisiana Hospital Capstone Quality Awards are aligned with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ inpatient quality initiatives and recognize hospital achievement in appropriate care for patients with diagnoses of:

• Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI)
• Heart Failure (HF)
• Community Acquired Pneumonia (PN)
• Improvements in care related to measures outlined in the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP).

The enclosed 2010 Louisiana Hospital Capstone Quality Award Fact Sheet provides detailed information regarding this award, which was announced at the 2011 Louisiana Medicare Quality Summit hosted by eQHealth Solutions in Baton Rouge on April 29.

The clinical measure sets for the awards have been designated as national health care priorities by CMS. Quality improvement teams at Glenwood have worked to use evidence‐based practices to improve care for their patients.

“As witnessed by the new health care reform law, and corresponding debate, we all recognize that making improvements to our health care system comes at a slow pass and our health care system remains broken. This is frustrating. Yet, as we all struggle to improve our state’s poor health statistics and poor health outcomes, progress is being made,” said Gary Curtis, CEO of eQHealth Solutions. “Health care providers in Louisiana have committed to reducing the rates of infections, pressure ulcers, surgical injuries, unnecessary hospital readmissions and many other key measures of health care quality. At our annual Medicare Quality Summit, eQHealth is proud to recognize the providers and facilities that making health better for the people and communities they serve.”

“The medical staff and the entire health care team of Glenwood are dedicated to providing the very best in patient care and our efforts have been enhanced through our quality improvement partnerships with eQHealth Solutions. We are extremely proud to be a recipient of this distinguished award,” said Ron Elder, CEO.