PORTALES, NEW MEXICO, October 16, 2019 – Five New Mexico hospitals, serving the state’s rural communities, earned the Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN) award, one of New Mexico Hospital Association’s (NMHA’s) premier honors for hospital quality. Hospitals were honored for projects that enlisted multiple teams and approaches to reduce hospital readmissions, the occurrence of infections and adverse drug events.

The HIIN Critical Access/Rural Hospital awardees are: Holy Cross Medical Center (Taos), Mimbres Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home (Deming), Miners’ Colfax Medical Center (Raton), Roosevelt General Hospital (Portales) and Socorro General Hospital (Socorro). “New Mexico hospitals’ performance, throughout the HIIN project, has been nothing short of extraordinary,” said John Harris, NMHA board member and CEO of Memorial Medical Center in Las Cruces, N.M.

“To be recognized as one of the top community hospitals in New Mexico is an extraordinary accomplishment and one we are most proud of. It reflects the commitment of our team of dedicated staff to provide care of the highest quality while ensuring patients who entrust us with their care are kept safe,” said Kaye Green, CEO of Roosevelt General Hospital.

Collectively, all 36 New Mexico acute care hospitals have met the 20 percent overall reduction goal of inpatient harm. These reductions translate into over 5,500 prevented patient harms, more than 476 lives saved, and over $70 million in healthcare cost savings in New Mexico.

Since 2016, 36 New Mexico acute care hospitals have participated in HIIN quality and patient safety programs along with 1,600 hospitals across the county. HIIN is two-year grant through the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that set aggressive goals to reduce inpatient harms by 20 percent and readmissions by 12 percent by 2019. NMHA administers the New Mexico HIIN with the Health Research and Educational Trust (HRET) of the American Hospital Association (AHA).

The NMHA’s Quality Committee selected the awardees using a point system that recognized overall performance, improvement and maintenance of zero patient harms over the past 12 months. Programs like HIIN, engage hospital leadership and clinicians at all levels to build on successes and spread best practices in education and staff training, mentorship, monitoring, data collection and analysis, and governance across the state.

2019 HIIN Critical Access/Rural Hospital Awardees

• Roosevelt General Hospital: Reduced patient falls by 34 percent, reduced hospital readmissions by almost 40 percent, and maintained zero harm events in central line and catheter associated infections.
• Holy Cross Medical Center: Reduced hospital readmissions by 14 percent and has maintained harm events in C. diff infections, anticoagulation adverse drug events and central line blood stream infections (CLABSI).
• Mimbres Memorial Hospital: Reduced opioid adverse drug events by 21 percent, reduced C. diff infections by 56 percent and maintained zero harm events in central line and catheter associated infections.
• Miners’ Colfax Medical Center: Reduced anticoagulation adverse drug events by over 50 percent and maintained zero harm events in central line and catheter associated infections, C. diff infections, and hypoglycemia adverse drug events.
• Socorro General Hospital: Reduced C. diff and central line infections by 100 percent and maintained zero harm events opioid adverse drug events, catheter association infections and methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections. “Commitment to quality and patient safety is central to the mission of NMHA member hospitals,” said Jeff Dye, NMHA president and CEO. “These hospitals’ comprehensive plans, put into action, have made them leaders in the state and nation in fostering patient safety and quality,”

Roosevelt General Hospital is committed to providing comprehensive patient care for residents throughout Roosevelt County, New Mexico and its surrounding areas. RGH offers a 24/7 physician-staffed emergency room, full spectrum inpatient and outpatient services, general surgery, laboratory, physical therapy and respiratory services, along with digital mammography, CT-scan, X-ray and MRI.

Established in 1945, the New Mexico Hospital Association represents the best interests of community hospitals on legislative, regulatory and public policy issues and works with members and others to improve the health status of the citizens of New Mexico. The proud membership of NMHA includes New Mexico facilities licensed to provide acute inpatient, specialty or general patient care and health systems and other qualified health care institutions.