Accelerating Best Care in Pennsylvania: the Hazleton General Hospital experience.

Hazleton General Hospital (HGH) was 1 of 2 rural area community hospitals selected to participate in Accelerating Best Care in Pennsylvania, a demonstration project conducted by Baylor University and Jefferson Medical College. This paper describes how a project team from HGH succeeded in learning and applying a rapid-cycle QI methodology that was developed for a large, academic health care system. The 5 projects undertaken for the demonstration included: heart failure discharge instructions, surgical antibiotic prophylaxis, care of the stroke patient, pneumonia care-administering antibiotic within 4 hours, and pneumococcal vaccine administration. The project teams achieved 100% compliance by the end of the initial measurement period. The program boosted QI at HGH and has been instrumental in the facility's continued performance improvement on CMS core measures.