INDIANAPOLIS, June 28, 2004 – William Spanenberg, MD, and Theresa Anderson, RN, BSN, MBA, CCRN, are among an elite group of health care professionals who are being recognized for the inaugural Indianapolis Safety Hero Award. Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson will present the honors during a dinner June 28 at Lilly Corporate Center Atrium in downtown Indianapolis.
The awards recognition program is spearheaded by the Indianapolis Coalition for Patient Safety in Hospitals, an action arm of the Indianapolis Executive Session on Patient Safety. The mission of the Session is to make Indianapolis the safest city in America for hospital care. These awards honor those individuals and teams in city hospitals’ who are making strides towards reaching that goal.
Dr. Spanenberg and Anderson were nominated for their work on the St.Vincent Indianapolis Hospital Rapid Response Team. The Rapid Response Team (RRT), which consists of an intensive care unit (ICU) nurse and an ICU resident physician, provides an early response to an acutely changing patient. The RRT is deployed when a patient’s heart rate, blood pressure or level of consciousness changes rapidly. Then the team provides early assessment and treatment while the attending physician is contacted. Once the attending physician is reached, a treatment plan is initiated.
“It was important for us to give the most efficient and effective treatment for patients, in an effort to ultimately save more lives,” said Dr. Jon Rahman, St.Vincent Health chief medical officer. “We believe that by uniting with the Indianapolis Patient Safety Coalition we can share best practices that work toward that end.”
Dr. Spanenberg is on the faculty of the Internal Medicine Residency Program and medical director of the adult inpatient medicine service at St.Vincent Indianapolis Hospital. He serves as the hospital’s case management medical director. In this capacity, he works in concert with the medical staff, nurses and other caregivers to increase quality, while improving the efficiency of clinical care. He is also the medical director of rehabilitation services for the hospital.
Anderson has served St.Vincent Indianapolis Hospital since 1986, when she began as an ICU staff nurse. In 1996, she was named ICU director and just this month was promoted to executive director of cardiac/thoracic/vascular services at the hospital.
Since its establishment in February, the St.Vincent Indianapolis Hospital Rapid Response Team has been called more than 200 times. In addition to patients receiving faster care, a deeper assessment and important monitoring, the program has also fostered relationships between critical care and the floor nursing staff, and among physicians.
Both Anderson and Dr. Spanenberg agree that the hospital’s RRT has already had a positive impact on bedside care and that this could not have been achieved if not through teamwork.
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St.Vincent Health is a health care system of 16 hospitals serving 45 counties in central Indiana and is among the largest employers in the state with 11,300 associates and 2,500 physicians. A member of Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic health system, St.Vincent Health is committed to providing “Healthcare That Is Safe.” One way this is being demonstrated is through Ascension Health’s membership in the National Quality Forum created to develop and implement a national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting.
