Each year, about 700,000 new or recurrent strokes occur in the United States, killing about 150,000 people. That’s one stroke every 45 seconds, and one stroke death every three to four minutes. About 15 percent of strokes occur within 90 days of a transient ischemic attack (TIA)—a warning sign of impending stroke. And the incidence of [...]
Two clinical improvement initiatives from St. Luke’s were recognized by Qualis Health, the well-known care management organization that oversees quality for the Medicare program in our region, at the state-wide Quality and Patient Safety Conference held in Boise on April 5. These two projects were selected from numerous submissions and were among four chosen for [...]
In our continuing commitment to transparency, click here to watch a video of my 2013 Spring Forum for our employees, boards, and physicians. I also want our community stakeholders to understand the journey we are on and the progress we have made. I presented this Forum 15 times across our System over a three-week period. [...]
St. Luke’s Health System is preparing for a new care model that will deliver better value at a lower cost. To fully drive the changes we seek to implement, we need meaningful, actionable data in new forms. This requires a partnership with a company that is equally innovative, that understands and shares our vision, and that [...]
Project Zero is an example of St. Luke’s Triple Aim in action. Its success is contributing to better care and lower costs. We have many such examples of innovative efforts led by physicians – in this particular case, by Drs. Kevin Shea and Howard King – that we are profiling on the blog. Having [...]
The reason that I am so optimistic that St. Luke’s can transform health care is that our physicians and our employees are leading the transformation. I have the chance here to feature the work of our physician leaders, and I will continue to share stories of improvements they are leading. In today’s post, I’m [...]
While picking up a prescription recently, I had the opportunity to tour our St. Luke’s Boise pharmacy and talk to staff members who, I was delighted to discover, are incorporating our vision and strategy every day in all they do. I visited with Pharmacy Operations Manager Mike Griffiths and was so impressed with his clarity [...]
TEAMwork works, and St. Luke’s Clinic Internal Medicine (SLIM) Parkcenter has proven just how powerful it can be. TEAMwork is St. Luke’s application of lean principles. It’s our management operating system. TEAMwork stands for timely, effective, accountable, measureable work. And it’s making its way through St. Luke’s Health System as we gain on our Triple [...]
It is with excitement and a great deal of pride that I share with you the news that St. Luke’s has been accepted into the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). Our participation as Idaho’s first and only MSSP participant was effective Jan. 1. For a long time, we have known, and I have been saying, that [...]
Today, Healthgrades released its annual list of Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence. I’ve asked Dr. Bart Hill, St. Luke’s chief quality officer, to share what the Healthgrades ratings indicate. His thoughts follow. In October, I wrote about some of the recognition we had been receiving for our good work, and it is my pleasure today [...]
