Wellstar’s ongoing commitment to improving patients’ health and wellness was on full display when more than 100 cardiovascular healthcare providers gathered for the third annual Cardiovascular Quality Forum last spring. The forum, which was hosted at Wellstar Kennestone Regional Medical Center, serves as a way to share best practices across the
Wellstar Center for Cardiovascular Care
in order to enhance patient care systemwide.
“All of our Wellstar cardiovascular programs across the system are constantly working to improve clinical processes in order to improve patient outcomes, whether it be reducing mortalities, decreasing complications, reducing length of stay, etc.,” said Wellstar Quality Manager Dave Bloomquist. “Our annual Cardiovascular Quality Forum allows us to share the work being done at each individual hospital so all Wellstar hospitals can benefit from each other’s improvement efforts.”
The centerpiece of the forum is the poster competition, an idea borrowed from the
American College of Cardiology’s
annual Quality Summit. Each Wellstar hospital is encouraged to share its cardiovascular improvement successes in the form of a poster submission. Submissions can come from any stakeholder across the care continuum, including inpatient, outpatient, procedural, wellness and post-acute care areas. The posters are then judged by a panel of physicians using an objective scoring tool.
“After three years of holding this event, our physician leaders are still quite eager to devote the time necessary to score the ever-increasing number of posters,” Bloomquist said. “When we held the first Cardiovascular Quality Forum, we had 12 poster submissions. Last year we received 20 submissions, and this year we received 32 submissions.”
The posters represent the hard work from Wellstar teams to enhance and sustain a culture of high-level cardiovascular quality. This year, the top five posters belonged to
Wellstar Kennestone,
Wellstar MCG Health,
Wellstar North Fulton,
Wellstar Paulding
and
Wellstar West Georgia
Medical Centers. Wellstar West Georgia earned the top overall score for its poster on decreasing telemetry calls, or the overuse of cardiac monitoring.
Additional highlights of the 2024 forum included a keynote address delivered by Mayo Clinic Cardiologist Dr. Abhishek Deshmukh and an awards presentation that honored
Wellstar Cobb Medical Center
with the overall cardiovascular quality award.
For the first time, the event also recognized outstanding provider leadership in quality. Wellstar Kennestone Cardiothoracic Surgery Physician Assistant Deleen Huff received the APP quality leader award, while Wellstar North Fulton Cardiologist Dr. Suresh Ramamurthy received the physician quality leader award. The awards are based on nominations, which may be submitted by any individual from any hospital.
“It was quite moving to read the nominations for physician quality leaders,” Bloomquist shared. “There was so much love and respect shown for our physicians by their clinical teams that it brought tears to my eyes as I read each nomination.”
Tears also flowed during the forum when a patient who survived a heart attack took the stage to share his testimonial alongside the Wellstar care team members who treated him.
“As we do each year, we invited a patient to join us to tell their story and recognize their Wellstar care team,” said Bloomquist. “There was not a dry eye in the room when the patient and his family told their journey at Wellstar—which ended with a left ventricular assist device (LVAD)—and thanked his care team for their love and care.”
As the Cardiovascular Quality Forum continues to grow, Wellstar patients will benefit greatly from care teams who are dedicated to improvement through collaboration. Bloomquist noted that the forum has been increasingly recognized by system leaders, including a number of hospital presidents who attend.
Looking ahead, Bloomquist said he is eager to see even more heart care leaders acknowledged for their contributions to the service line. “We will continue to grow the list of cardiovascular stakeholders that will be recognized for their improvement efforts to include inpatient nurses and EMS partners,” he shared.
The next Cardiovascular Quality Forum will be held March 2025.
