Friday, October 4, 2024
San Juan Regional Medical Center Honored as Top Overall Hospital Statewide Leader in Quality and Patient Safety
From left: SJRMC President/CEO Jason Rounds, Clinical Auditor Coty Sewell, Project Manager Kristin Grant, Associate Chief Nursing Officer Cindy Baez, Clinical Quality Coordinator Monica Nagahiro, NMHA President/CEO Troy Clark
San Juan Regional Medical Center is thrilled to announce that we are the New Mexico Hospital Association’s Quest for Excellence 2024 Award winner. We received the honor at the New Mexico Hospital Association’s Annual Meeting in Albuquerque for our process improvement Kaizen “Accelerating Cardiac Care: Implementing Point-of-Care Troponin Testing for Rapid Results."
The Quest for Excellence Awards represent the highest level of professional acknowledgement from the New Mexico Hospital Association’s Quality Committee. The award honors hospitals for their exceptional efforts to improve clinical quality and patient care for the people of New Mexico.
As your community hospital, San Juan Regional Medical Center’s commitment to excellence is reflected in everything we do. From our staff to our facilities, every detail throughout our healthcare network is focused on delivering personalized, quality care that meets the highest standards. Our process improvement initiative to accelerate cardiac care by implementing point-of-care troponin testing is a prime example.
When a patient comes into the Emergency Department experiencing chest pain, one step taken to diagnose a heart attack is to test the patient’s blood for troponin, which indicates damage to the heart. Through a collaboration with the Emergency Department and Laboratory, we introduced point-of-care troponin testing, which allows our laboratory staff to deliver rapid results with unparalleled efficiency. This dramatically reduces the time it takes to diagnose and treat heart attacks.
“Continuous process improvement is essential in delivering high-quality healthcare, especially for our chest pain patients. By fostering strong teamwork and collaboration, we successfully enhanced our troponin turnaround times. This effort not only streamlined our workflows but also ensured that patients experiencing myocardial infarction receive timely and effective treatment. It’s a testament to our commitment to working together for better patient outcomes throughout their healthcare journey,” said Dr. Robert Underwood, Chief Medical Officer at San Juan Regional Medical Center.
"Our commitment to excellence and continuous improvement drives us to innovate. Faster testing, better outcomes, and a focus on quality—this is how we ensure our patients get the care they deserve, even in critical moments," added San Juan Regional Medical Center’s President and CEO Jason Rounds.
We celebrate the remarkable achievements of our team along every touchpoint of our network of comprehensive cardiac care, from our EMS response to arrival and treatment in the Emergency Department and rapid testing in the Laboratory, allowing us to provide earlier interventions and better care for chest pain patients. Better is our mission, improving lives through personalized health and care. We are honored to be named as the Statewide Leader in Quality and Patient Safety and look forward to continuing to make our processes better for our patients and our community.