Very busy, very challenging, and very successful – if Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center could be succinctly summed up, those would be the words. It’s a rare year in which a hospital can fire on all cylinders – quality, safety, patient experience, and financial performance – but FY18 was one of them, and it’s all because of the hard work and dedication shown by every PPMC team. As FY19 shapes up to be another year brimming with challenges and areas of opportunity, now seems like the perfect time to reflect on the highlights of the last year and our goals for the future.
FY18 was marked by innovative work across departments; a commitment to volunteerism and community outreach; improvements in patient outcomes and staff engagement; promising preliminary data for the safety survey; and higher volume with shorter downtime periods between surges. There was specifically an uptick in our rescue and transfer volume. All of this underscores the fact that leaders in every corner of PPMC are working hard to strike a balance between serving our local community and driving our reputation as a referral center for the entire region.
Consistently having full beds throughout FY18 and into FY19 has highlighted opportunities for improvement. Our clinical teams are focusing on patient progression and prioritization by developing a system to discharge appropriate patients or move them onto a new level of “post-acute” care. While a patient whose transfer to a bed is delayed still has a care team supporting them in the ER, there’s always room to provide a better, more efficient patient experience. We are also hoping to develop “landing sites” for cardiovascular surgery and transfer patients who will be moved to open beds later in the day, but need a comfortable place to go in the meantime. To tackle this, we are considering new approaches that could be applied not only at Presby, but potentially across the health system to advance patients to their next level of care more quickly and ensure better outcomes.
For FY19, advancement is a dominant theme, especially with regard to our facilities. Over the next year, PPMC’s older ORs will be refurbished, and our outpatient Heart Institute will be renovated. We’re also taking steps toward developing our growing cancer program by increasing oncology and infusion capacity and adding an on-site linear accelerator for Radiation and Oncology treatment. Aside from these upgrades and our aim to expand our range of acute care, observation, and urgent care capacities and strategies, we will also be participating in a pilot program led by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to investigate the effectiveness of value-based care and payment bundling.
I am confident that FY19 will be as full of changes and challenges as the past year, but if each staff member continues to provide high-quality care to our patients and their loved ones, drive innovation on their units and in their departments, and improve the health and well-being of the community both in and out of the hospital, I am equally confident that we can propel PPMC to the next level of excellence.