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In addition to making Emory Healthcare the largest and most comprehensive health care system in Georgia (see inside back cover), Emory medical faculty provide the majority of physician care at three affiliated hospitals: (1) Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, recently named the third best children’s hospital in the nation by Child magazine, (2) Grady Memorial Hospital, the city’s 953-bed public hospital, and (3) Atlanta Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
In both Emory’s own and affiliated facilities, Emory physicians head essential programs, including many unavailable elsewhere in the city, state, or region. Examples include the most comprehensive AIDS program in the country, one of the most comprehensive multiple organ and tissue transplant centers in the nation (and one of the few providing islet cell transplants), a cancer institute on track to become the state’s first NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, the region’s only comprehensive geriatric health system, and the oldest stroke center in the Southeast.
Patient-centered care
Emory is dedicated to creating a new model of care, one with a patient- and family-focused service culture that maximizes collaboration among researchers and clinicians to speed innovations to prevent and treat disease.
This past year, five initial clinical/research areas (transplant, respiratory health, neuroscience, cancer, and heart/vascular care) were targeted to exemplify what patient-centered care should be. In addition to new discoveries, these centers are expected to set new standards for patient safety and quality and will also drive new standards in use of electronic medical records, continuous feedback programs to provide real-time data on needed system improvements, and technology that allows on-demand sharing of such information among caregivers, researchers, students, patients, and families.
Key faculty have been recruited in the past year in several of these centers, including transplant, neuroscience, and cancer, and a vice president for clinical and academic integration was named to lead the entire initiative for patient-
centered care.
Neuro ICU
An illustration of the patient-centered model in action can be seen in Emory University Hospital’s new neuro intensive care unit, where clinical care is led by neuro-intensivists, a relatively new breed of MDs who specialize in treating critically ill patients with brain injuries, and where nurses assume larger responsibilities than in the past. The center’s space was designed based on what evidence has shown to be most beneficial to the patient—consolidating equipment to eliminate the need for moving patients long distances for procedures and accommodating family members who want to remain with their loved ones around the clock.
Quality and safety
Under the direction of the chief quality officer (CQO) for Emory Healthcare, new CQO positions were added at Emory Hospital, Emory Crawford Long Hospital, and The Emory Clinic, with responsibility for scrutiny and revamping of policies and procedures at all levels. Emory also has adopted the LEAN process-improvement program originally developed by Toyota, standardizing processes to prevent human error.
Some changes have been simple: Walk-Rounds, for example, in which senior officers drop by unannounced to talk with staff about any problems or suggestions, or the creation of ready-made packs with everything needed to start a central line under the most stringent of septic techniques.
Others are more process- and technology-oriented. For example, by thinking more like manufacturers, Emory clinicians have been able to cut turnaround time in getting specimen results from pathology by two-thirds, improving speed of diagnosis and onset of treatment. Perhaps the biggest boost in quality of care comes from Emory’s electronic medical record system (EeMR for short), which has been implemented in stages over the past four years.
Predictive health
Emory continued its leadership role in predictive health with the opening this year of the Center for Health Discovery and Well-Being at the Emory Crawford Long campus in midtown Atlanta. The center is part of the Emory/Georgia Tech Predictive Health Institute, whose focus is on maintaining health and preventing or delaying rather than treating disease.
The center initially will enroll several hundred healthy individuals from whom staff will collect physical, medical, and lifestyle histories, and the results of up to 50 different blood and plasma tests that target known critical predictors of health and illness. Measures of inflammation, immune-system health, metabolic health, and DNA analysis for genes that confer risk will be used to construct a definition of a person’s current health to help predict future health. Based on these profiles and on predictive risk models, each participant will be prescribed a personalized health program addressing individual risks, with the goal of remaining healthy.
New clinic complex
This fall marks the groundbreaking for a new facility complex for The Emory Clinic. The architects are HKS Inc, the largest health care architectural firm in the world, with Staubach Company, a global real estate advisory firm, providing project management. Located near the original Emory Clinic site, the facility will rely on evidence-based design to help integrate research and clinical care in an “ideal” patient experience, from parking, arrival, and check-in to examination and treatment. The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation contributed $240 million toward this facility, continuing the legacy that Coca-Cola magnate Robert Woodruff began when he helped establish The Emory Clinic more than 50 years ago. Completion of the new complex is expected by 2012. |
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