Windber Named One of America's Most Innovative Hospitals

Just announced by prestigious industry analysts Fierce Healthcare:

"We are pleased to announce the release of our first-annual Hospital Innovators Awards —honoring U.S. acute care hospitals that have taken a leadership role on critical industry issues... These awards honor some of the most innovative acute care hospitals that are stepping outside of 'business as usual' and getting special things done. Some are strikingly original, and others are just doing a great job of solving common industry problems."

1.	Memorial Hospital-South Bend	6.	Sisters of Mercy
2.	Licking Memorial Hospital	7.	St. Joseph's Hospital
3.	University of Pittsburgh Medical Center	8.	Griffin Hospital
4.	Winona Health	9.	Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
5.	Windber Medical Center	10.	Morton Plant Mease Health Care

From Fierce Healthcare's 2007 award page recognizing Windber Medical Center as one of the TOP FIVE most innovative hospitals in America:

"What they're doing: Despite its rural location and small scale, there are some things going on at Windber Medical Center that sit on the cutting edge. Windber's system...is tying together the work being done by its Windber Research Institute with day-to-day clinical practice. This concept is mostly at the idea stage in most institutions, including high-profile, big-bucks academic medical centers, but Windber is making it happen."

"Under this concept, known as The Model, patient care teams now include not only physicians and nurses, but also a researcher from the Institute whose job it is to apply what they're learning in the lab. Researchers draw in part on knowledge gained from the Institute's 40,000-donor tissue bank, which includes attributes such as gender, age, ethnicity and medical history, to predict what patients may need given the experience of similar donors. It's a noteworthy strategy--especially for a small facility out in the boonies."

"What's more, Windber has jumped into the Planetree model with both feet... As CEO Nick Jacobs puts it, the Planetree philosophy offers patients 'the best of a spa, best of a hotel and best of a hospital,' complete with integrative health features such as massage, aroma therapy and Reiki, and comfort options like private kitchens, popcorn and bread making machines for patient's families, double beds in OB, a greenhouse, healing gardens and decorative fountains. On the less touchy-feely side, this model also gives patients complete access to charts during their stay, giving them chance to ask questions as they see fit. While Planetree has its detractors, it's hard [not] to argue that Windber is making a great go of it."

This is actually the second time Windber has received accolades for innovation within the last month. Fierce Healthcare's award comes on the heels of the April 17, 2007 issue of Inside Healthcare Computing, in which Nick Jacobs is interviewed about this very blog, along with Microsoft's Global Healthcare Industry Director, Bill Crounse MD, Promedica Research Center's Carol Kirshner and myself, guest blogging for Nick, while he's traveling between destinations.

Read excerpts from Inside Healthcare Computing, or  download the complete article (as an Adobe Acrobat/Reader document) here.

So, congratulations to all within the WindberCare family of organizations whose creativity, compassion, hard work and innovation continue to earn global recognition for clinical and research excellence.

—Posted by: Mike Russell

Comments

[Pracash love]

Congratulations Mr.Nick and the Windber Team:

Congratulations on the Most Innovative award to your hospital. I went through your webpage to find out about all the neat stuff your doing at Windber.

Keep up the good work in raising the bar for all hospitals nationwide.

Nick, Am doing a small kind of research activity in improving the effectiveness of communication and advertisement by the hospitals specially heartcare and surgery hospitals and institutions using internet..... Could anyoone please help me in this regard........

Waiting for a positive reply....

My email id is sms2ii@yahoo.co.in

Thanking You,
prakash Love.

[Toby]

Adding my congrats! Glad to see that your work is being acknowledged.

[Carolyn Kent]

Congratulations! An award well-deserved!

[Aesculapius MD]

Congratulations to you and your team. I'm floored by your entreprenurial spirit and embrace of inovations like translational medicine, blogging, YouTube video and more. Where do you find people who have the vision and talent to do this stuff?

[Jim Weidner]

Nick and the Windber Team:
Congratulations on the Most Innovative award to your hospital. I've had some of my management team hit your webpage to find out about all the neat stuff your doing at Windber.
Keep up the good work in raising the bar for all hospitals nationwide.
Hi to everyone,
Jim Weidner