2020 Quality Leaders Awards Winners

CAPH/SNI Recognizes Public Health Care Systems at the 2020 Quality Leaders Awards

OAKLAND – The California Health Care Safety Net Institute (SNI) and our partner the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems (CAPH) are pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 Quality Leaders Awards (QLAs), which were celebrated today at the virtual CAPH/SNI Annual Conference.

The QLAs highlight innovative approaches to improve care and advance population health in California’s public health care systems. This year, in addition to the four standard QLA award categories, three additional winners received a special recognition for their COVID-19 response.

“What we saw today from the winners was truly impressive, especially during such a challenging year,” said Giovanna Giuliani, Executive Director at SNI. “We congratulate our winners and thank them for their dedication, hard work, and relentless commitment to serve those most in need. I also want to acknowledge the heroic COVID-19 response efforts underway across all public health care systems in California.”

Top Honor – Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center

Caring for seniors and adults with disabilities, Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in San Francisco is the largest publicly run skilled nursing facility in the country. Through a COVID-19 response and outbreak management plan driven by early, decisive action, and scientific expertise, Laguna Honda effectively managed and slowed the spread of COVID-19 on campus.

Performance Excellence – LAC+USC Medical Center

COVID-19 has resulted in the delay of crucial immunizations for children, as well as a doubling of the prevalence of food insecurity. To address these gaps, the Pediatric Primary Care Clinic at LAC+USC Medical Center partnered with the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to implement a drive-up model of care, where children received routine vaccinations and their families received a trunkful of fresh and non-perishable food.

Data-Driven Organization – Contra Costa Health Services

When COVID-19 struck, leaders at Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) knew that their most high-risk patients would need extra support to safely shelter-in-place. To identify those individuals, CCHS leveraged their data warehouse to design a COVID Vulnerability Index that predicts patients’ likelihood of hospitalization from COVID-19. This model has allowed CCHS to target their interventions to those most in need.

Ambulatory Care Redesign – San Mateo Medical Center

When COVID-19 hit, San Mateo Medical Center (SMMC) had days to implement telehealth across their organization. They quickly assembled an interdisciplinary team to adapt their in-person visit workflows to a new telehealth model and developed standard work processes. The thoughtful formation of this team-based approach allowed SMMC to continue to deliver high quality care during the pandemic.

Special Recognition, COVID-19 Response – Arrowhead Regional Medical Center

As COVID-19 emerged, Arrowhead Regional Medical Center proactively formed a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder Skilled Nursing Facility Outreach and Support (SO+S) Team to provide targeted interventions to sites experiencing outbreaks. By providing in-the-field assessments and expertise around infection control protocols, staffing, and supply chain issues, the SO+S Team controlled outbreaks at 48 facilities.

Special Recognition, COVID-19 Response – Natividad Medical Center

At the beginning of the pandemic, there was an abundance of urgent information about the outbreak that was inaccessible to non-English speakers. Natividad quickly realized the need to address this gap and responded with a large-scale communications campaign to share science-based information about COVID-19 in multiple indigenous languages.

Special Recognition, COVID-19 Response – Santa Clara Valley Medical Center

In February, the County of Santa Clara emerged as an epicenter of COVID-19, with up to 25% of the nation’s cases. Santa Clara Valley Medical Center conducted early rapid surveillance research to guide public health decisions and established novel methodologies to increase testing capacity. These efforts resulted in a 15-fold increase in testing capacity and bolstered Santa Clara’s ability to provide wraparound medical and social services to those most in need.