DANVILLE — Geisinger Medical Center in Danville and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township celebrated National Healthcare Quality Week from Oct. 18 to 24.

“Quality is at the core of our mission at Geisinger,” said Albert Bothe, M.D., chief quality officer for Geisinger Health System. “Our staff members strive every day to provide the highest quality care to patients, and our culture of clinical innovation has led to initiatives such as ProvenCare that have further improved quality standards.”

Geisinger’s nursing staff was recently ranked in the top 10 percent of a nationwide patient satisfaction report by U.S. News & World Report, while ProvenCare has attracted national attention because of its successful use of evidenced-based medicine, lowering complications and reducing readmissions following major surgeries such as coronary artery bypass.

To celebrate Quality Week, Geisinger Wyoming Valley held events including patient satisfaction presentations by the Performance Improvement team and a weeklong National Patient Safety Goals employee participation event.

Geisinger Medical Center hosted the 2009 Healthcare Quality Awards on Oct 26. Ten staff members were recognized for exemplifying quality service and safety.

One award recipient was Dean Parry, who helped develop a system to improve the efficiency and compliance rates of medication reconciliation.

Medication reconciliation is the process of obtaining a complete list of a patient’s medications to ensure that they do not conflict with a physician’s discharge recommendations.

Parry, director of the Clinical Pharmacy Program at Geisinger Medical Center, worked with physicians and nurses, consulted with developers of Geisinger’s electronic health record system and fully audited the cumbersome process. As a result, the medication reconciliation protocols were revamped and streamlined, and compliance rates rose to greater than 90 percent systemwide.

“Our employees are committed to the idea of continually improving processes and systems to increase the quality of care for patients,” Dr. Bothe said. “Quality Week was an excellent opportunity to recognize and appreciate the hard work of our employees and to continue to illustrate our dedication to providing the highest level of quality patient care.”