Main Line Health wins Quest for Quality Prize | AHA Leadership Summit
The Pennsylvania system earned praise for health equity and its work in behavioral health. Atlantic Health System and University of Chicago Medicine received citations.
Main Line Health received the Quest for Quality prize at the American Hospital Association Leadership Summit Monday. Barbara Wadsworth, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Main Line Health, accepted the honor. (Photo: Ron Southwick)
Seattle - Main Line Health has earned big-time recognition.
The Pennsylvania-based health system earned the 2023 American Hospital Association Quest for Quality Prize. Main Line received the honors at the AHA Leadership Summit on Monday.
Main Line Health, based in the Philadelphia region, operates four acute care hospitals and a rehabilitation hospital. The AHA said it chose Main Line for the prize because of “its systemwide integration of quality, safety, and equity and for the governing and operating structures supporting these goals.”
Main Line’s leaders show high engagement and front-line workers are invited to participate in quality improvement efforts.
The hospital association cited Main Line for its years of work to improve health equity. Main Line has created a dashboard aimed at detecting health disparities in key metrics. The AHA lauded the system’s “Disparities in Care Colloquium” for working to bolster health equity in the region.
In addition, Main Line earned praise for its new behavioral health unit which the AHA said demonstrates “a strong commitment to meeting community needs and could serve as a national model for the field.” Main Line has also been hailed for working to improve obstetrical and neonatal care.
The AHA also awarded Citations of Merit to two other systems: the Atlantic Health System in Morristown, N.J., and University of Chicago Medicine, in Chicago, Ill.
The Atlantic Health System was honored for creating the Atlantic COVID Recovery Center, a program designed to care for patients with persistent COVID symptoms. The program spurred the creation of a regional network of doctors to follow those patients.
Atlantic also earned plaudits for the training of nurses to tackle different roles. During the worst of the pandemic, pediatric nurses, who had fewer patients, trained to care for adult patients. When RSV cases spiked, adult nurses received training to aid children and teens.
The AHA honored University of Chicago Medicine for its work on diversity and health equity, noting the system has collected racial and ethnic data on patients for more than 10 years. The system recognized young Black mothers suffered gestational hypertension more often than white patients and provided educational efforts that made substantial improvements.
In addition, UChicago Medicine has engaged a community council to advise the system on health equity efforts, with groups focusing on areas such as maternal and child health, trauma care and preventing violence, and diabetes among patients in minority groups.
Rick Pollack, the AHA’s president and CEO, said the recipients “have truly enhanced the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of health care within their respective communities."
“Based on their innovative models of care, services and collaborations, they are exceptional champions of quality and very deserving of this recognition.”
The hospital association first introduced the annual Quest for Quality Prize in 2002. Last year, University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland received the top prize.
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