Shady Grove Medical Center Neonatology Team Wins Quality and Patient Safety Excellence Award

ROCKVILLE, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#100kbabies–MEDNAX, the national health solutions partner specializing in neonatal
and other pediatric services, anesthesia, maternal-fetal, radiology,
pediatric cardiology and other physician and management services, is
pleased to announce that its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) team at
Adventist HealthCare (AHC) Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville, MD,
was awarded the AHC Quality and Patient Safety Excellence Award. The
award was given for the team’s quality improvement project that reduced
the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a devastating and
often fatal disease that occurs in premature newborns, from nine percent
to zero percent in the last five years.

The winning quality improvement project entitled Getting to Zero: A
Team-Based, Evidence-Based Approach to the Reduction of Necrotizing
Enterocolitis in the Shady Grove Medical Center NICU was both
championed and first authored by Dr. Nasir Rashid and managed by
corporate medical director, Dr. Jim Rost, who oversees patient safety
efforts for MEDNAX NICUs. Other contributors included Dr. Mike Sukumar,
Elly Shaw-Belblidia, RD; Luna Tiglao, RN; Amy Gilkey, RN.

The AHC Quality and Patient Safety Award annually recognizes a team
within its system for an innovative improvement in health care delivery
that protects patients and contributes to positive outcomes. This year,
a review panel consisting of AHC board members, leaders and community
members evaluated 11 submissions from across the AHC system. The panel
scored entries on collaboration, leadership, sustainability and spread,
ability to demonstrate change, innovation and a culture that advances
patient safety. The Shady Grove Medical Center NICU team earned the top
score.

“The Shady Grove NICU team’s project exemplifies how fresh thinking,
collaboration and a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving can
elevate the level of care we provide to our patients and save lives,”
said Susan Glover, Senior Vice President and Chief Quality and Integrity
Officer for AHQ. “The Adventist HealthCare Quality and Patient Safety
Excellence Award is part of our company’s commitment to a culture of
safety and our way to inspire caregivers to continually do all they can
to create the very best outcomes for our patients.”

Shady Grove Medical Center houses a high acuity, Level III
perinatal-neonatal unit, which delivers 5,000 babies a year, including
150 premature newborns at highest risk for NEC. NEC is characterized by
the death of most or all of the cells of the gastrointestinal tract
which can lead to complications or death even with early, aggressive
treatment. The incidence of NEC generally ranges from five percent to
seven percent in premature babies with mortality as high as 25 percent
to 30 percent in babies who require surgical intervention. In addition,
NEC increases length of stay, is associated with worse
neurodevelopmental outcomes and is a costly disease, accounting for 20
percent of annual NICU costs.

Getting to Zero: A Team-Based, Evidence-Based Approach to the
Reduction of Necrotizing Enterocolitis in the Shady Grove Medical Center
NICU was done in conjunction with MEDNAX’s 100,000 Babies Campaign,
a national clinical quality initiative designed to improve patient care
in the NICU by incorporating continuous quality improvement practices in
everyday care. From 2007 to 2013, 100,000 Babies focused on five
critical clinical practices and procedures used in neonatal care:
enhancing nutrition, improving medication use, reducing central line
infections, minimizing mechanical ventilation and reducing suboptimal
admission temperatures and achieved the following results based on data
from 420,000 babies in 330 NICUs, including Shady Grove Medical Center:

• Increased use of human breast milk and the decreased use of commonly
  overused medications.
• In very low birth weight infants, mortality decreased by 22 percent.
• Necrotizing enterocolitis decreased by 41 percent.
• Severe retinopathy of prematurity decreased by 31 percent.
• Late onset infection decreased by 54 percent.
• Central line infections decreased by 56 percent.

MEDNAX providers care for more than 110,000 neonatal patients in the
country per year.

ABOUT MEDNAX

MEDNAX, Inc. (NYSE:MD) is a national health solutions partner comprised
of the nation’s leading providers of physician services. Physicians and
advanced practitioners practicing as part of MEDNAX are reshaping the
delivery of care within their specialties and subspecialties, using
evidence-based tools, continuous quality initiatives, clinical research
and telemedicine to enhance patient outcomes and provide high-quality,
cost-effective care. The Company was founded in 1979, and today, through
its affiliated professional corporations, MEDNAX provides services
through a network of more than 3,300 physicians in all 50 states and
Puerto Rico. In addition to its national physician network, MEDNAX
provides services to healthcare facilities and physicians in over 40
states through two complementary businesses, consisting of a revenue
cycle management company and a consulting services company. Additional
information is available at www.mednax.com.

Contacts

MEDNAX, Inc.
Stacey Kovalsky, 954-384-0175, Ext. 5505
Manager,
Corporate Communications
Stacey_Kovalsky@mednax.com