December 24, 2024
Archive

Morris Hospital employee named Patient Safety Champion

Carrie Pinasco (front), quality, safety and health policy director at the Illinois Health and Hospital Association, poses with Morris Hospital & Healthcare Center employees (back, from left) Quality and Patient Safety Specialist Erin Simons; Rehabilitation Services Manager Sarah Wrightso; Lead Physical Therapist Valerie Skroch, ;Vice President of Professional Services Thomas Dohm; Quality Manager Kelly Van Fleet; and Quality Management Specialist Kerry Kelly. (Contributed photo)

On June 6, the Midwest Alliance for Patient Safety Patient Safety Organization awarded Valerie Skroch, lead physical therapist at Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers, with the MAPS PSO Patient Safety Champion award for preventing patient harm. MAPS PSO is an Illinois Health and Hospital Association company.

The PSO committee selected Skroch because of her efforts to improve patient safety organization-wide. She is a part of Morris Hospital’s Safe Patient Handling Committee and works on its Fall Tips Project. Skroch has been involved in selecting the organization’s new fall risk assessment tool, updating its fall prevention policy and developing a safe patient handling policy.

In addition, Skroch has been instrumental in helping the hospital become a minimal-lift facility and adopt evidence-based practices to improve patient outcomes. Her passion for patient safety also led to a progressive mobility project for ICU patients. With Skroch facilitating, the ICU team aims to standardize its approach toward sedation mobility and management of ventilated patients.

“Val is an excellent patient advocate and committed to improving patient safety for the benefit of each individual patient,” said Morris Hospital President and CEO Mark Steadham. “She exemplifies the high standards we set for patient care at Morris Hospital. We’re very proud of Val for receiving the MAPS PSO Patient Safety Champion award.”

As Morris Hospital’s lead physical therapist, Skroch coordinates the inpatient physical therapy team, evaluates and treats acute care patients, ensures quality skilled services are provided and guides the team in developing new services and programs.

MAPS PSO Patient
Safety Champion Program

Federally certified since 2010, MAPS PSO assists its members with the important work of reducing adverse events so they can provide a safer health care experience for their patients. As part of its commitment to member excellence, MAPS PSO established the Patient Safety Champion Program to reward “good catches” at member facilities.

“For the last eight years, MAPS PSO has been partnering with health care providers from across the state to save lives,” said IHA President and CEO A.J. Wilhelmi. “Through the Patient Safety Champion Program, IHA and MAPS PSO can continue to improve patient safety and support organizations that are committed to excellence.”

MAPS PSO has a vital role in coordinating adverse event reporting and aggregating the data to drive collaboration and change. PSO members use this information to guide their efforts to improve care.

PSO members include 73 Midwestern health systems, hospitals, critical access hospitals, physicians groups, long-term care and specialty outpatient clinics. Each benefits from the security of a protected PSO environment to collect, analyze and learn from adverse event data and best practices.

MAPS PSO also works with nationally recognized leaders in patient safety on research, data mapping and data collection to simplify the data submission process. To learn more about MAPS PSO, visit alliance4ptsafety.org.