Two TriHealth Members Are 2011 Health Care Heroes

Mar. 15, 2011

Two members of the TriHealth family have been named 2011 Health Care Heroes, an award that recognizes individuals and organizations that make an impact on health care in Greater Cincinnati.

The Business Courier announced the winners at a banquet Monday night, March 14, at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Cincinnati.

TriHealth's winners are:

• J. Michael Smith MD, in the Innovator category, for his work with TriHealth's robotic-assisted surgery program.
• Bethesda Inc., in the Community Outreach category, for its new transformative health care grant program, which included a grant to TriHealth for Patient-Centered Medical Home efforts. Bethesda Inc. is the sponsor organization of Bethesda Hospital Inc.

Honored as a finalist:

• John Ward, in the Manager category, for his efforts to bridge information technology and patient care. Read nomination >

Following are the nominaton letters submitted to the Business Courier:

J. Michael Smith MD

Category: Innovator

Winner

J. Michael Smith brought robotic-assisted surgery to Greater Cincinnati in 2003. The minimally invasive technology has made surgery feasible for more patients. Benefits include: reduced hospital length of stay, faster recovery time, lower infection rates and less blood loss.

By viewing robotic-assisted technology through the eyes of continuous quality improvement, Dr. Smith has remained the local leader in this field and also has elevated TriHealth’s program to leadership status on both national and international platforms. In doing so, he has made recruitment of physicians into this market a more attractive proposition, which is critical as the country struggles with physician shortages. Following are a few of the many milestones he has achieved in this innovative field:

• Instrumental in the donation of two robotic systems and TriHealth’s purchase of five more to meet demands in the specialties of cardiothoracic surgery, urology and gynecology.
• Trained surgical teams from elite U.S. hospitals such as Johns Hopkins Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic, as well as international teams from Germany, Denmark, Australia, etc.
• Collaborated in the first duo-surgeon robotic-assisted cardiac surgery in U.S. (June 2009).
• Started a local Robotic-Assisted Cardiovascular Surgery Fellowship (July 2010)—only second one in the U.S.

Bethesda Inc.

Category: Community Outreach

Winner

Bethesda Inc. has been a leader in developing health-related services in Greater Cincinnati since 1896 and today is one of two joint sponsors of TriHealth. Believing successful health care initiatives begin locally, Bethesda Inc. in 2010 refocused its mission to include supporting health care innovation, collaboration, education and research in the Cincinnati community.

As a result, Bethesda Inc. announced its first-ever grants to programs to improve overall care for residents, while removing common barriers to receiving quality health care. 

• A three-year grant to the Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati to further its online healthcare performance and reporting initiative called YourHealthMatters. When completed, the program will compare treatment outcomes, patient satisfaction and costs for local physicians while arming consumers with information to improve their own health, particularly in managing chronic conditions.
• A two-year grant to TriHealth to develop Patient-Centered Medical Home models in its primary care physician practices. With Medical Home, health care is transformed to a “health team” approach focusing on wellness and successful management of chronic conditions. Patients see benefits including more flexible scheduling, shorter waiting times and better tracking of medical records.  Greater Cincinnati is becoming a national leader in adopting this innovative practice model.

John Ward

Category: Manager

Finalist

John Ward has led clinicians and information technology specialists in developing TriHealth’s Clinical Data Warehouse. The CDW and its patient registry have been highly recognized by the region’s physicians as a valuable tool to assist in managing populations of patients with chronic disease. No longer dependent on mere samples harvested from paper charts, the CDW collects and normalizes data from various physician and hospital EHRs and tracks quality measures for agencies such as AF4Q or NCQA. The physician, with just a few keystrokes, can view an electronic “dashboard” of patients and monitor their quality measures. This development is particularly important in that it validates the time and effort required to enter data into an electronic health record. No longer expending patient visit time looking up information, the physician has more opportunity to work directly with the patient, guiding to healthier behaviors and better health.

John Ward and his team represent one of the emerging bridges between information technology and patient care. With our nation’s high expectations of the promises of health information technology, it is important to spotlight examples of individuals who inspire teams of clinicians and technologists to plant milestones like these along the way.