NEWTON – For the fourth time in five years, Newton Memorial Hospital earned a VHA Leadership Award for excellence, this time in the area of operational efficiency.

Newton Memorial is one of only seven health care organizations nationwide – and the only one in New Jersey – to receive the 2010 VHA Leadership Award for Supply Chain Management Excellence. The award recognizes the Hospital for its work to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness to cut costs while maintaining the quality of care offered to patients. It also puts Newton Memorial in elite company as the other hospitals to receive this award include Mayo Clinic and Yale New Haven Health System.

“By prioritizing supply chain efficiency, these health care organizations are conserving resources, which is increasingly important in light of ongoing industry economic pressures,” said Scott Downing, executive vice president at VHA. “These award winners are setting the right example for other hospitals in learning how to do more with less while maintaining high-quality care.”

Newton Memorial Hospital is one of 1,400 community hospitals and 28,000 non-acute health care organizations that are members of VHA. This non-profit network of healthcare organizations establishes best-practice standards and shares them with group members. Each year, VHA compares the organizations with one another and recognizes its highest performing members in areas of clinical and operational excellence.

This is the first time Newton Memorial has received a VHA Leadership Award for operational excellence. The previous three VHA awards recognized Newton Memorial for clinical excellence:

• 2006 VHA Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence for reaching exceptional performance standards for preventing Ventilator Assisted Pneumonia and Blood Stream Infections in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
• 2007 VHA Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence for performing at the 90 percent or above level in treatment of heart attack patients, prevention of surgical infections and treatment of pneumonia patients.
• 2008 VHA Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence for preventing Ventilator Assisted Pneumonia in the Intensive Care Unit for 12 consecutive months.

“We are very proud of receiving recognition for operational excellence because it truly demonstrates the attention and focus we pay to organizational efficiencies, which is very important in today’s healthcare environment,” Newton Memorial Hospital President & CEO Tom Senker said. “We continue to be a safe, patient-focused community hospital as demonstrated by our current quality numbers. What the community now knows is that Newton Memorial works very hard to achieve efficiency, but never compromises the quality of care.”

In an effort to improve Supply Chain Management, Newton Memorial completely overhauled the department and instituted the following changes:

• A departmental mission statement which sought to “create a clinical advantage” for hospital clinical staff “through purchasing and distributing products and services that provide superior value.”
• United Materials Management with Central Sterile Supply into a single cohesive unit and provided a single point-of-contact for hospital employees.
• Relieved clinical staff of routine Supply Chain Management functions by taking responsibility for all patient care stock rooms.
• Eliminated costs through standardization and inventory reduction.

Overall, these efforts helped reduce non-surgical medical supply expenses by 7 percent; overall hospital medical supply inventory by 37 percent; a virtual elimination of crash-cart turnovers due to expiration; and increased employee satisfaction scores in accuracy and timeliness.

“Supply Chain Management at Newton Memorial Hospital has been able to show demonstrable value to the organization such that Supply Chain Management is viewed as an asset to patient care,” said Mark Herzog, Newton Memorial Hospital Director of Supply Chain Management. “Thank you to my staff for their efforts to help us receive this prestigious honor and help us elevate the care Newton Memorial provides to its patients.”

In addition to Herzog, the Hospital’s Supply Chain Management team includes: Supply Chain Manager Jessie Sutton; Buyer Deb Gannon; Purchasing Coordinator Ed Blatzheim; and Supply Chain Technicians Danielle Bedotto, Jackie Dowd, Ferdinand Fernandez, Ron Kuefner and Carmelina Romagnuolo.

Representatives from Newton Memorial Hospital received recognition at the VHA Leadership Conference in Orlando, FL in early May. The Hospital also recognized Supply Chain Management during its National Hospital Week picnic.

Employees from Newton Memorial Hospital Supply Chain Management pose for a picture. Newton Memorial Hospital recently won the 2010 VHA Leadership Award for Supply Chain Management Excellence. The award puts Newton Memorial in elite company as two of the other six healthcare organizations to receive the award include, Mayo Clinic and Yale New Haven Health System. Pictured from left to right (back row) are Supply Chain Technician Jackie Dowd, Purchasing Coordinator Ed Blatzheim, Supply Chain Manager Jessie Sutton, Supply Chain Technician Ron Kuefner, Supply Chain Technician Danielle Bedotto, Director of Supply Chain Management Mark Herzog and Supply Chain Technician Ferdinand Fernandez. Sitting from left to right are Buyer Deb Gannon and Supply Chain Technician Carmelina Romagnuolo.