Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Utilization of an Interdisciplinary Team Approach for the Care of Infants with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome

Development of a Norwood Clinic allowed the quality improvement team to create goals to decrease morbidity and mortality and improve the long-term quality of life
for patients with HLHS.

Over the past year, the hospital focused on innovative operative and post-operative care, effective care transitions, achieving adequate growth, parent engagement, discharge care coordination and proactive rehabilitation assessment and intervention.

Length of stay decreased from 31.1 to 16.5 days. Readmission rates dropped from 1.21 to 0.79 admissions/patient. Also, there has been a decline in length of stay for all congenital heart surgery patients—dropping from 22.9 days (2009) to 6.94 days (2012).

This case study is part of the Illinois Hospital Association's annual quality awards. Each year, IHA recognizes and celebrates the achievements of Illinois hospitals in continually improving and transforming health care in the state. These hospitals are improving health by striving to achieve the Triple Aim--improving the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction); improving the health of populations; and reducing the per capita cost of health care.

Award recipients achieve measurable and meaningful progress in providing care that is:

• Safe
• Timely
• Effective
• Efficient
• Equitable
• Patient-centered

(The Institute of Medicine's six aims for improvement.)