By Healthcare Facilities Today

Abington Memorial Hospital took top honors recently when the Delaware Valley Health Care Council handed its annual patient safety and quality awards.

The eastern Montgomery County medical center won first place for its “Reducing Harm” initiative, which started a decade ago. The mission of the program is to reduce "preventable harm" through training and accountability benchmarks that involved the entire Abington Health system, according to an article in the Philadelphia Business Journal.

Abington Memorial recently surpassed its goal — originally set for 2015 — of achieving 365 consecutive days without a serious safety event.

Second place in the safety awards went to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center for the development of a clinical decision support tool used to improve the treatment of pneumonia patients. Hahnemann University won third place for a collaborative effort aimed at the early detection of sepsis.

DVHC received 38 entrees from hospitals across the region for award program sponsored by the Health Care Improvement Foundation.

Read the article.