cently received an honor of quality from its parent company.

The hospital has been recognized as a Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate. The designation recognizes hospitals within the LifePoint Health system that have enrolled in the LifePoint National Quality Program and succeeded succeeded in transforming their culture of safety and achieving high standards of quality care, performance improvement and patient engagement.

UPHS – Portage is a 36-bed facility that has served people in the Western Upper Peninsula (UP) for more than 123 years.

To achieve Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate designation, the hospital implemented a number of best practices and launched new initiatives to engage patients and families, enhance patient safety and improve quality care.

For example, the hospital team implemented the “Foundational Five” Safety Behaviors, which include conducting daily briefs, debriefs and huddles; using learning boards; and practicing executive patient safety rounding. Executive patient safety rounding helps ensure that leaders at every level of the organization engage with staff, physicians, patients and families about quality and patient safety. The hospital also implemented bedside shift reporting to help ensure clear communication, reduce the risk of errors and maintain consistency of care during shift changes. Bedside shift reporting is an effective method for transferring information from one provider to another, while also involving patients in discussions about their health, progress and treatment plan. Additionally, the team successfully reduced the number of patient readmissions to the hospital within 30 days of discharge by more than 30 percent and established a Patient and Family Advisory Council to help further improve the patient experience.

Launched in 2014, the program is part of Duke and LifePoint’s efforts to advance quality across all LifePoint hospitals and identify best practices to help create safe and highly reliable care nationwide.