St. Luke's Medical Center - Global City, Philippines bags three awards at the Healthcare Asia Awards 2018

The hospital won Management Innovation of the Year, Service Innovation of the Year, and Employee Engagement of the Year, making it the most awarded hospital in the Asian region.

St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) is the leading and most recognized healthcare institution in the Philippines. St. Luke’s-Global City earned its first Joint Commission International (JCI) hospital accreditation in 2012 after only two years of operation. It is also accredited by JCI for the Clinical Care Program Certification (CCPC) for the Primary Stroke Program. Germany-based accrediting body Trust, Effective Medicine, and Optimized Services (Temos) accredited both hospitals (St. Luke’s Quezon City & Global City) for Excellence in Medical Tourism and Quality in International Patient Care. St. Luke’s-Global City was also regarded as one of the “20 Best Hospitals in the World” in 2014 and “Preferred Partner Hospitals” in 2016 by the Diplomatic Council of Europe.

Management Innovation of the Year 

To determine the effectiveness of an emerging communication model in reducing formal complaints, St. Luke's-Global City introduced the Daily Collaborative Meeting or Daily Huddle as a means to effective communication. It is a brief meeting to share information at the beginning of the workday, assisting members of the team to work together for the common goal of safe, efficient patient care.

The Daily Collaborative Meeting takes an average of 21 minutes, adopting the Three Point Agenda of Daily Check In Model, with the end view of capturing issues and concerns at an earlier stage to prevent them from being raised as formal complaints. As it forms part of the daily safety check, it also utilized a reporting mechanism that captures issues from the last 24 hours. Managers discuss the issue, analyze possible root causes,as well as identify and recommend solutions. Comparison of the number and classification of issues between 2016 and 2017 revealed that with increasing admission, at the growth rate of 10%, reported issues in the collaborative meeting had also increased considerably by 33%. This suggests that as issues are being presented, discussed and solved, the escalation to formal complaints are reduced. As this becomes a learning experience, the more issues are openly discussed and solutions are offered the more the process becomes efficient.

Service Innovation of the Year 

In July 2017, another milestone for St. Luke’s-Global City is the implementation of the Dose Error Reduction Software (DERS), a life-saving safety feature with the use of smart infusion pumps. This is to aid the Nurses of safety nets and alerts to help prevent inadvertent Intravenous (IV) medication error. DERS is an example of forcing function which is among the seven tools for prevention of medical errors of The Institute of Safe Medication Practices (ISMP). It effectively prevents an individual from infusing wrong medication dose in the infusion pumps. It allows the opportunity to set the standard by using technology to automate and enforce dosing limit based on hospitals policies or established intravenous administration practices to prevent infusion risks and provide safety for patients.Clinical Pharmacists with practice experience in different Clinical Services extensively worked on the preparation of the SLMC drug library for a period of 5 months, from the gathering and review of reliable references, standards and dosing guidelines until the actual uploading of more than a thousand IV preparations and concentrations in the DERS.

The first month of implementation showed 89% drug library utilization and average of 86% for 6 months. The system was able to intercept a total of 9930 near misses captured by the set upper and lower hard limits. Relating the number of intervention with the hospital’s patient days, overall intervention rate is equivalent to 170 interventions for every 1000 patient days. With the positive results, the team is currently working on the Phase 2 project which includes Electronic Medication Administration Record (eMAR) integration and remote tracking for asset utilization. To date, the hospital is using the third version of SLMC Drug Library uploaded last December 2017.

Employee Engagement of the Year

The Nursing Care Group, on the other hand, started the journey towards Pathway to Excellence Program. It is an international honour given to organizations that demonstrate positive environment where nurses can excel. The Pathway to Excellence standards aim to improve nurse engagement and satisfaction, patient satisfaction, and good clinical outcomes. Achieving Pathway confirmed that nurses in the organization are engaged and that their contributions are valued. Pathway to Excellence provided a framework to address gaps, concerns, and issues which are considered as opportunities to continuously innovate and effect positive change to the organization. Moreover, it has created a work environment where nurses felt empowered and engaged as essential members of the inter-professional health care team.

The aforementioned initiatives which were accorded with such prestigious awards by healthcare Asia is a true testament to the hospital’s legacy as the Philippines’ flagship healthcare institution.

The Healthcare Asia Awards 2018 was held on 23 May 2018 at the Conrad Centennial Singapore.

This year's nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Abhay Bangi, Partner, Life Sciences & Healthcare Lead, Ernst & Young; Mohit Grover, Life Sciences & Healthcare Leader, Deloitte, and; Sabrina Tay, Partner and Deputy Industry Lead, Healthcare RSM Singapore.

Check out the event photos during the awards night here.

If you would like to join the 2019 awards and be awarded as one of the most outstanding healthcare companies in the region, please email Marianne at [email protected].