2012 Success Story Award^® Call for Submissions
Submission Guidelines

Overview

Demonstrating leadership, implementing organizational change, improving performance on clinical or process measures, expanding market share, or increasing patient satisfaction or employee or physician partnership are achievements worth celebrating. The Success Story Award recognizes clients whose creative approach in using Press Ganey solutions to realize such achievements has led to improved delivery and quality of care in 2011.

All Press Ganey clients, from every sector of health care, who use any Press Ganey solution, are eligible to apply. Improvement programs and initiatives may pertain to units, departments, freestanding facilities or entire organizations. They may describe improvement in patient satisfaction, clinical quality, operational efficiency or strategic planning and marketing. Raw scores are NOT a factor in determining award winners.

Our panel of judges reads and evaluates each initial submission and chooses finalists who are invited to submit expanded submissions. Our judges evaluate these expanded submissions and finally select recipients of the Success Story Award. Award winners will be invited to participate at the Press Ganey National Client Conference in Washington D.C., Nov. 12-14, 2012.

We encourage you to answer the call for submissions, describing what your facility has done to surpass the expectations of internal and external clients and the resulting outcomes. The benefits of winning include:

• The opportunity to participate at the 2012 National Client Conference (including complimentary conference registration and two nights hotel accommodations for one).
• An engraved award for display at your facility.
• 100 lapel pins to share with staff.
• Inclusion of your narrative in the annual Awards Book, on the Press Ganey web site and in other media.
• A media kit to help you publicize and promote your award.

Important Dates

January 2012	Call for submissions opens.
March 5	Initial submissions due. The deadline is 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on March 5 – no exceptions.
April 16	Finalists notified by phone and email. Organizations not advancing to the final round will be notified by email.
May 14	Expanded submissions due. The deadline is 8:00 a.m. Eastern time on May 14 – no exceptions.
June 22	Award winners notified by phone. Non-winning finalists notified via email.
November 12-14	Press Ganey National Client Conference. Success Story Award winners are invited to present an educational breakout session.

Selection Criteria
Please provide a brief overview of your program or initiative and answer the following six questions. To avoid timeout issues on your computer, it is highly recommended that you type your answers into a Word document before you begin the process and then copy and paste your answers into the online form. Please note that each answer field is limited to 800 characters (approximately 150 words). The examples listed within each question are not all-inclusive, but are merely representative.

1. Give a brief description of your improvement program or initiative.

• Example 1: After an examination of service scores which hovered in the single digits, we committed to major changes to improve service. All nursing staff were trained on key words, how to introduce themselves and explain procedures. Staff implemented hourly patient rounds to check on the patient's comfort and to keep the patient informed during the visit. ED physicians and nurses committed to making post-discharge phone calls to a percentage of patients.
• Example 2: Our compliance with PCI < 90 minutes was only 25%, so we formed a multidisciplinary team to identify barriers and potential solutions for improving the door-to-balloon-time process. The team mapped out the current process flow of the STEMI patient upon arrival to the ED, and we set out to correct processes by establishing specific goals to measure our progress. Once we identified the delays, we implemented a protocol driven program that included the appropriate orders, paging the STEMI team via a centralized paging system and rapid response by our ED physicians for timely identification and notification to the cardiologist.

2. How were Press Ganey resources and solutions used in your improvement program or initiative?

• Examples of resources and solutions include: Solutions Starters, infoEDGE, the Press Ganey Community, guidance of Press Ganey staff i.e. Consultant, Improvement Manager, Clinical Performance Executive, etc.

3. How was your Press Ganey data used in your improvement program or initiative?

• Examples: tracking, trending, reports.

4. What measurable outcomes or ROI can be attributed to your improvement program or initiative? Examples include:

• Improved percentile rank on inpatient satisfaction by 11.5 points.
• Raised percentile rank on employee satisfaction by 10 points.
• Improved percentage on National Hospital Quality Measures (e.g., percentage of outpatients having surgery who got an antibiotic at the right time).
• Lowered employee and nurse turnover rates from 5% to 1.4%.
• Decreased readmission rates for heart attack from 18% to 12%.
• Decreased percentage of ED patients left without being seen from 2.5% to 1.1%.
• Reduced length of inpatient stays in the XYZ unit from 5.3 days to 3.6 days.
• Reduced MRSA rate of occurrence from 0.94 per 1,000 bed-days of care to 0.25.
• Reduced medication errors from 3.1 per 1,000 orders to 1.0.
• Reduced number of inpatient falls with injuries from .88 to .40 per 1,000 patient days.
• Reduced malpractice rates from X% to Y%, resulting in an estimated savings of $_____ in malpractice costs.
• Increased physician referral rates by 8% resulting from physician partnership.
• Other metrics might include growth in market share or higher utilization rates by physician or service line.

5. Success is a team effort. How did you obtain buy-in and sustain support from staff, physicians, supervisors and/or upper management?

6. What were the creative, innovative or unique aspects of your improvement program or initiative? (We are looking not only for new ideas, but also for unique and creative approaches to any challenge, even those thought of as common or universal within health care.)

Your initial submission will be read by our selection panel. If your entry is selected as a finalist, you will be notified by phone and asked to prepare an expanded submission. The selection panel will review the expanded submissions to determine the winners of the Press Ganey Success Story Award.

 

Application Process

• Go to the online submission form.
• Fill out contact and facility information.
• Fill in your answers. To avoid timeout issues on your computer, it is highly recommended that you type your answers into a Word document before you begin the process and then copy and paste your answers into the online form. Please note that each answer field is limited to 800 characters (approximately 150 words).
• Read the release form and check the box to confirm your acceptance of the terms.
• Review your entry and click the submit button.
• You will receive an email confirming receipt of your entry.

*If you are unable to submit your entry online, you may email your submission in Word format (no PDFs please) to  awards@pressganey.com. If you have any questions about eligibility, the initial submission or the process, please send an email to awards@pressganey.com.