(7/23/10) – (San Diego, California) Dr. William Boulware, Chief of the McLeod Regional Medical Staff, accepted the 2010 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality PrizeT on behalf of McLeod Regional Medical Center on Thursday, July 22. A team of staff, physicians and leadership is currently attending the 18th annual American Hospital Association/Health Forum 2010 Leadership Summit, where the award was presented.
‘On behalf of McLeod Health, we thank our patients and community for entrusting us with their care. This achievement would not have been possible without our medical staff and our people who are dedicated to improving the quality of care we deliver to our patients and their families daily,’ stated Rob Colones, President and CEO of McLeod Health.

The McLeod Health team in California will continue to attend the weekend Leadership Summit, a national conference hosted by the American Hospital Association which brings health care leaders together to focus on quality and performance improvement. It is designed for senior executives, governing board members, leaders in hospitals, health systems and allied organizations providing health care. Educational content includes information on innovative leadership strategies that can affect the operational performance of organizations.

Along with recognized keynote speakers including Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, who presented the Quest for Quality Award to McLeod at the beginning of the event on Thursday, the Summit features educational tracks that address the critical issues important in today’s health care environment.

Sullenberger became a hero after skillfully landing distressed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the surface of the Hudson River in New York City, saving the lives of all 155 aboard. He is the author of the recently released: Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters.

Other well-known keynote speakers presenting at the Leadership Summit include Newt Gingrich, founder of the Center for Health Transformation and former Speaker of the House of Representatives; Dee Dee Myers, former White House press secretary and political commentator and analyst; Ken Burns, historian and film maker; and the Honorable Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States, Nobel Peace Laureate and author of An Inconvenient Truth and Our Choice by live video feed.

‘On behalf of the AHA, congratulations to McLeod Regional Medical Center on winning the 2010 AHA-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize,’ said Rich Umbdenstock, AHA President and CEO. ‘McLeod Regional Medical Center has made a real commitment to the Institute of Medicine’s six quality aims: safety, timeliness, effectiveness, efficiency, equity and patient-centeredness. Improving patient safety and quality of care is the top priority at McLeod Regional Medical Center — so much so, that every board meeting begins with a discussion of methods to improve care as the number one agenda item. We hope their quest for excellence will provide ideas and inspiration for others.’

The 2010 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality PrizeT, is awarded annually to only one hospital in the country. McLeod is also the first hospital in South Carolina to receive this prestigious honor since the inception of the national Quest for Quality Prize in 2002.

McLeod was selected for the 2010 American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prizer by a multi-disciplinary committee of health care quality and patient safety experts from across the nation for the honor, based on the McLeod culture of quality and efforts to achieve the Institute of Medicine’s six quality aims for health care — by engaging physicians, staff and leadership in efforts to improve quality through safety, effectiveness, patient-centered care, timeliness, efficiency, and equity.

All U.S. hospitals are eligible for the annual American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize. McLeod Regional Medical Center is the 2010 winner, Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan is the finalist and Queens Hospital Center in New York received the citation of merit.

In 2007, McLeod was recognized with a Citation of Merit by the American Hospital Association in the ‘American Hospital Association-McKesson Quest for Quality Prize.’

Among those hospitals recognized in the past are Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, MI; Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA; Duke University Hospital, Durham, NC; Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA; Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH; Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, Norfolk, VA; and The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD.

McLeod continues to receive visits by groups of international physicians and medical leaders from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States who come to Florence to meet with members of the hospital staff to gain insights into the ways in which McLeod has approached its quality and clinical improvement efforts.