The Missouri Center for Patient Safety (MOCPS) announced the winners of its third annual Missouri Excellence in Safe Care Award program which recognizes health care provider projects that increase patient safety. The awards were presented to the winners at the April 5 Inspiring Change...Improving Care conference in Columbia.
St. Mary's Health Center received an award for their project, "Implementing the Modified Early Warning Scoring (MEWS) System" which increased the use of St. Mary's Health Center's Medical Emergency Team (MET) through the use of the Modified Early Warning Score (MEWS) tool.
This tool identifies patients at high risk of cardiopulmonary arrest (Code Blue), and has led to a near 10 percent decrease in mortality rates, through early recognition and early treatment.
MOCPS, together with a clinical and research committee, designed the criteria for rating, scoring and judging award applications from health care providers. Each provider's program was submitted to a nine person panel of judges comprised of physicians, nurses, risk managers and researchers. Final evaluation for a project is carried out by three judges.
"It's a priority for us annually to recognize the successful safety practices in the State of Missouri," said MOCPS assistant director Carol Hafley. "Beyond simply giving kudos to the winners, each has a specific opportunity to address their projects and work with those at our annual Patient Safety Conference. This sharing is vital to inspire and encourage other health care providers to adopt similar efforts."