First Hospital In America Awarded Integrated Care Certification Introduces Parrish Healthcare

By  //  June 13, 2016

PARRISH HEALTHCARE TREATS WHOLE FAMILY

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George Hoggard, above right with his wife Rita, embodies the benefit of receiving integrated care. (Image for Space Coast Daily)

“Parrish Healthcare was great!” said George Hoggard, who was a recent stroke patient at Parrish Medical Center and embodies the benefit of receiving integrated care. “From the Emergency Room to a Mayo Clinic neurologist consult, hospitalization and rehab, Parrish Healthcare was great!” said George. “They don’t just treat the patient, they treat the whole family.”

BREVARD COUNTY • TITUSVILLE, FLORIDA – In addition to being the site of abundant natural beauty and a national hub for technology, North Brevard can also claim for its own Parrish Healthcare, a groundbreaking network of healthcare providers that time and again have been recognized as leaders in the field.

The latest proof of the healthcare system’s excellence arrived earlier this year, when the Joint Commission’s Hospital Accreditation Program announced that Parrish Medical Center was the first hospital in the United States to be awarded Integrated Care Certification.

“This certification reflects Parrish’s commitment to ensuring high-quality care transcends the walls of its hospital,” said Mark Pelletier, chief operation officer, Accreditation and Certifications Operations at the Joint Commission.

Mark Pelletier
Mark Pelletier

The certification recognizes hospitals and ambulatory care settings that excel at integrating information-sharing and transitions of care as a patient moves between the hospital and outpatient care settings.

The significance of this seamless and flowing river of service has critical importance to patients’ health outcomes. While many hospitals tout an integrated care system, Parrish Medical Center is the nation’s first, and currently the only one, to be integrated care certified, attesting to the hospital’s “walk-the-walk” philosophy.

George Mikitarian
George Mikitarian

“Unlike most models that build fragmented networks through mergers and acquisitions, Parrish Healthcare’s model is one of collaboration among health and healthcare organizations with the patient and his or her personal health and wellness goals at the center of that collaboration,” said George Mikitarian, president and CEO of Parrish Healthcare.

“We are proud to be the nation’s first to earn Integrated Care Certification. We wanted a tough, objective measure of our integrated care effectiveness.

Completing the voluntary certification process continues to afford us the opportunity to demonstrate that our community-based network of hospitals, physicians and outpatient services are effectively working together to improve patient care and quality and to reduce costs.”

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IN ADDITION to being the site of abundant natural beauty and a national hub for technology, North Brevard can also claim for its own Parrish Healthcare, a groundbreaking network of healthcare providers that time and again have been recognized as leaders in the field. (Image for Space Coast Daily)

PATIENT-CENTERED, COMPASSIONATE CARE

The rigorous and exhaustive certification process validated Parrish’s leadership as a provider of patient-centered, compassionate and effective care.

“We have dedicated ourselves for 15 years to transforming how we provide health-related services healthy living initiatives, as well as safe, high quality and healing care, in direct cooperation with the people we serve and long before the passing of the Affordable Care Act,” added Mikitarian.

The Affordable Care Act is designed to create national healthcare standards that provide people with access to quality and safe care, while lowering overall healthcare costs.

That goal is best achieved through integration, coordination and collaboration of health-related care programs throughout the individual’s life.

THE JOINT COMMISSION’s certification recognizes hospitals and ambulatory care settings that excel at integrating information-sharing and transitions of care as a patient moves between the hospital and outpatient care settings. (Image for Space Coast Daily)
THE JOINT COMMISSION’s certification recognizes hospitals and ambulatory care settings that excel at integrating information-sharing and transitions of care as a patient moves between the hospital and outpatient care settings. (Image for Space Coast Daily)

Research has proven that collaboration between healthcare providers, for the benefit of people—individuals, families and communities—is preferable to costly competition between organizations and uncoordinated care that raises costs and does little to improve a person’s health.

“Collaboration has been one of our strategic initiatives well before the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. The Integrated Care Certification validates what we’ve been doing for a long time.”

PARRISH-MEDICAL-CENTER-580-5The impetus to apply for the voluntary certification arose from Parrish’s commitment to the lifelong health of the Brevard community.

“It gives people a way to discern between fact and fiction,” explained Mikitarian.

“An organization calling itself ‘integrated’ for marketing purposes is one thing, but proving it with this certification is another.”

“Integrated care,” which refers to an agreement among providers to improve the efficiency and quality of care, is a favorite buzzword in the medical field, but in many instances, a buzzword is indeed all it is.

“To us at Parrish, integrated care is the art of healing, which combines the precision of evidence-based medicine with the human experience to improve lives through superior healthcare quality, safety, service and reduced costs,” said Mikitarian.

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PARRISH MEDICAL CENTER is the 29th member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. PMC is the first Central Florida member of the network and the third in Florida. The Mayo Clinic Care Network extends Mayo Clinic’s knowledge to physicians and providers interested in working together in the best interest of their patients. (Image for Space Coast Daily)

SAFECARE TOP 100

The effectiveness of Parrish’s integrated care is reflected in the superior levels of quality and safety Parrish continues to sustain.

SAFECARE-200-1For example, Parrish has earned an “A” patient safety grade from the LeapFrog Group since 2012 and earned a position on the Top 100 SafeCare Hospitals® list from The SafeCare Group since 2015. In fact, of all of the thousands of health systems and hospitals in the nation, Parrish ranked number 17 in the nation on the Top 100 SafeCare Hospitals® list.

This means Parrish is performing at levels surpassing 95 percent of our nation’s hospitals.

What does being on the Top 100 SafeCare list mean for patients?

“If all U.S. hospitals attained the 100 SafeCare Hospitals® level, there would be improvement in the more than 400,000 preventable patient deaths and millions of preventable complications that occur each year,” noted Dr. Yisrael Safeek, president and CEO of the SafeCare Group.

That ratio represents approximately 700-plus preventable patient deaths annually in Brevard County alone.

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PARRISH MEDICAL CENTER CARE Partners group behind PMC Senior Leaders to show their pride as the recipients of the 2015 Laureate Award for Workplace Excellence, presented by Alan Jackson, Chief Customer Officer, The Jackson Group, a Bivarus company. (Image for Space Coast Daily)

RICH HISTORY

Parrish Medical Center, founded in 1958, is a 210-bed, not-for-profit public medical center. In 2014, the hospital became the 29th member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. It is the first in Central Florida and the third in Florida to be associated with this prestigious network of care.

In addition to Parrish Medical Center, Parrish Healthcare includes affiliated facilities such as Parrish Healthcare Centers and Parrish Health & Fitness Center; the Parrish Medical Group, which includes primary care physicians and specialists and the Florida Health Network, an expansive regional network of independent healthcare providers, insurers and others.

Parrish Medical Foundation Benefit Raises $130,000 To Establish ‘Sources of Strength’Related Story:
Parrish Medical Foundation Benefit Raises $130,000 To Establish ‘Sources of Strength’

The latter boasts hospitals such as the Mayo Clinic and Nemours, insurers such as Blue Select and United Healthcare and community-based physicians, skilled nursing facilities and a hospice, among others.

“We orchestrate collaboration between health networks from best-in-class health providers such as the Mayo Clinic to complement the impeccable quality and safe care provided by Parrish Medical Center,” said Mikitarian.

“This is what differentiates us from all of the others.”

For information about Parrish Medical Center log on to ParrishMed.com or call 321-268-6111.

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THE JOINT COMMISSION’s Hospital Accreditation Program awarded Parrish Medical Center, a public, not-for-profit facility in Titusville, Florida, its first hospital in the United States to be awarded Integrated Care Certification.