TriHealth Bridge

June 27, 2023

 
Hi Team –
 
I hope some of you were able to use your complimentary Reds tickets over the weekend to enjoy a game on TriHealth! And if you caught the game last Friday, you got to cheer on TriHealth’s own Amy Hayden (pictured below), who served as Honorary Game Captain! 
 
 
Both the Reds and FC Cincinnati remain #1 in their respective leagues. And while the Reds’ 12-game winning streak ended on Saturday, they still hold the Majors’ record for the longest streak this season!! 
 
Here at TriHealth, we’re also batting a thousand, with another week of major wins and exciting announcements to share...
 
Getting Healthcare Right
TriHealth Accelerates Health Equity Commitment, Thanks to Generous Support from bi3 
As discussed again at last week’s Monthly Town Hall and in recent Weekly Updates, TriHealth is taking bold steps to address health disparities and achieve greater health equity within our system and throughout the region. Health disparities are “preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, and violence or the opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations.”  
 
Through this effort, we aim to proactively identify and eliminate disparities in health outcomes resulting from social determinants of health, inequitable access to care or sub-par experiences based on race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, gender identification, or even socioeconomic status. This is central to our mission of service and our values-led commitment to respond to the healthcare needs of our entire community. It is also foundational to achieving our long-term vision and strategy of Getting Healthcare Right by delivering on the Triple Aim of better care, better health, and better value for everyone we serve, always. 
 
So today, I am pleased to announce that, thanks in part to generous grant funding from bi3 (the fundraising arm of Bethesda Inc.), TriHealth will be investing an additional $4.3 million to further support the launch of TriHealth’s groundbreaking Center for Health Equity, one of just a few of its kind in the nation. This new grant builds on the $4.5 million grant bi3 awarded TriHealth last year to reduce health disparities and accelerate health equity and belonging. The new Center for Health Equity will be led by Dr. Thomas Shockley, TriHealth Chief Health Equity Officer, and staffed by a dedicated TriHealth team, responsible for developing and deploying targeted initiatives to address community-wide social determinants of health and health status while eliminating disparities in health and care delivery within TriHealth’s patient populations.
 
In partnership with TriHealth’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEI+B) team, the Center will continue to build a culture of inclusion and belonging – one which fosters trust and confidence among our TriHealth team and those we serve. The Center will also:
  • Leverage new and existing analytics and performance improvement resources to address disparities and foster more equitable care for patients.
  • Implement a Health Equity Roadmap, specifically prioritizing interventions in maternal/infant, chronic disease, and behavioral health.
  • Develop, implement, and regularly evaluate equitable care models that can be scaled across our system and other health conditions.
  • Build community-based partnerships with other regional health systems, public health organizations, social services, and more to address the social determinants of health that are influencing health outcomes.
A special thanks to bi3 and Jill Miller, President and CEO of bi3 and Bethesda Inc., for their unwavering commitment to, and investment in, TriHealth’s noble work to Get Healthcare Right by prioritizing health equity. Look for updates on the development of the new Center for Health Equity in the coming months.
 
Cincinnati Pride: Building a Culture of Inclusion and Belonging to Foster Health Equity 
Last Saturday, I attended Cincinnati Pride’s annual celebration at Sawyer Point and “rounded” on our team members from PRISM, DEI+B, Talent Acquisition, Corporate Health, Event Medicine, and many more who represented TriHealth so well at this powerful annual event. Together, TriHealth volunteers provided our community with health screenings, information about TriHealth employment opportunities, and vital health education materials, as well as on-site care for any urgent or emergent health needs provided by our Event Medicine team (pictured bottom left). And the value of TriHealth’s role as the official healthcare provider for Cincinnati Pride extends far beyond this annual event. By demonstrating our commitment to “see and hear” the unique healthcare needs and concerns of ALL of the richly diverse communities we serve – including the LGBTQ+ community – we live our mission and values, while continually improving our ability to deliver “surprisingly human care,” which drives exceptional health outcomes for everyone, always.
 
TriHealth Recognized with Lantern Awards for National Leadership in Emergency Department Care Excellence
I’m thrilled to announce that the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) has presented its esteemed Lantern Award to our Emergency Departments (EDs) at Arrow Springs, McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital (MHMH) and Western Ridge! This is the fourth win for Arrow Springs, the second for Western Ridge, and the first for McCullough-Hyde!
 
The Lantern Award is a three-year designation that recognizes EDs that consistently embrace evidence-based practices and achieve industry-leading performance in leadership, clinical care delivery, patient safety, education, advocacy, and research. This national award is the highest industry recognition of an ED’s commitment to quality, safety, and maintaining a positive and healthy work environment. McCullough-Hyde’s recognition is a particularly impressive milestone, as it places TriHealth in a truly elite position as the ONLY health system in the nation to have ALL of its EDs now recipients of coveted Lantern Awards at the same time!
 
A BIG thank you and congratulations to our incredible Arrow Springs, McCullough-Hyde and Western Ridge teams – and ALL of our TriHealth ED teams – for their talents, hard work, and unwavering commitment to patient care excellence that made this outstanding achievement possible!
 
Celebrating the Leadership of Dr. Tariq Shakoor
Please join me in recognizing and congratulating Dr. Tariq Shakoor, TPP Medical Director for the Gastrointestinal (GI) service line, on his many accomplishments and now well-deserved planned “second” retirement at the end of this month.
 
We are deeply grateful and indebted to Dr. Shakoor, who agreed to come out of retirement in 2021 to help lead TriHealth’s transformational efforts to rebuild our GI service line, alongside Dr. Bryan Strader, President of TPP,  Jason Schwartz, TPP VP of Clinical Service Lines, and Val Dedman, Director of Endoscopy Center North, among many others. Dr. Shakoor helped stabilize the program in its earliest days following the departure of our previous GI group, so we could continue to care for every patient in need of GI care at TriHealth. As importantly, Dr. Shakoor helped to develop and guide an innovative approach to our “reimagined” GI services, which included recruitment of highly trained and often sub-specialized physicians to provide the most complex and comprehensive GI care, with higher level clinical collaborations and partnerships among and between specialties – all to deliver the very best care for every patient, always. And because of this transformative effort, the TriHealth GI service line is back and better than ever, as evidenced by these outstanding achievements:
  • 14 new full-time employed GI physicians have joined TriHealth and our GI physician team, with expected growth to approach 20 physicians in 2024.
  • GI procedure volume is approaching 3,000 cases per month – roughly the volume we were experiencing pre-COVID.
  • And we now have a strong partnership with UC Health Hepatology for management and treatment of more complex liver disease, ensuring seamless coordination of total GI care for our TriHealth patients.
Following Dr. Shakoor’s retirement, Dr. Venkata Muddana will serve as interim TPP Medical Director for GI, while we conduct a thorough selection process for the next permanent TPP Medical Director.
 
June Team Member Town Hall Recording Available on Bridge
If you missed last week’s Team Member Town Hall, it’s not too late to view the full recording here on Bridge. And remember, we’re always interested in your input to help shape future Town Hall agendas. So, if you have thoughts about topics of interest or timely news you want covered, or if you just have questions you want answered, please email them to TownHall@trihealth.com and we’ll be sure to include them in future Town Hall discussions.
 
As we head into the July 4th long holiday weekend, I want to wish everyone a safe, relaxing and FUN holiday in celebration of our great nation’s 247th birthday – God Bless America!! And a BIG thank you to all of our team members and physicians who will be serving our patients throughout the upcoming weekend and holiday. Look for my next Weekly Update on Wednesday, July 5.
 
 
 

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