UofL Health – Peace Hospital has received the 2021 Quality Award for the Psychiatric Units and Freestanding Psychiatric Hospitals category. The Kentucky Hospital Association (KHA) Quality Award is presented to honor hospital leadership and innovation in quality, safety, and commitment in patient care.
The Peace Hospital team defines quality as providing exceptional care to our patients. Quality is executed though our innovative, individualized patient care and in developing partnerships that enhance the health and well-being of our community. The pandemic has disrupted the normal medical/hospital model, but Peace Hospital was not only able to survive such changes but continue to thrive.
“Our entire team’s effort is critical in successfully driving change. Understanding the impact of a national pandemic and how this impacted impact daily operations in our psychiatric hospital setting led to our intentional efforts of providing a designated COVID-19 unit and implementing hospital-wide infection mitigating efforts,” said Martha Mather, CAO. “The planning and evaluating of these efforts allowed us to continuously adapt and revise to meet ever-changing executive orders, CDC recommendations and/or unique needs of our patient population.”
Peace Hospital is one of the largest behavioral health facilities in the nation, providing care for children, adolescents, and adults with 261 beds. Peace Hospital demonstrated adaptability, innovation and strong leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and quickly put into place a designated isolation unit for COVID-19 patients. To date, we have tested nearly 5000 Covid patients, treated over 200 COVID-19 positive patients and have accepted at least 140 positive Covid patients from outside facilities.
Through the expertise and guidance of our Chief Medical Officers, Infection Control Practitioners, Medical Providers and in alignment with our Governor’s executive orders, specific and unique interventions were swiftly put into place.
Several wellness and other initiatives were put into place including the following, but not limited to:
- Peace Hospital displayed innovation in realizing the importance of self-care during a pandemic.
- Emotional support phone line for all UofL Health staff
- A serenity room
- Weekly mindful meditations
- Provided resources through blogs, media spotlights and other communications
- A Covid Corner article was Included in the hospital’s weekly newsletter
- Established a daily incident command meeting for hospital needs
- Maintaining outpatient programs
- Providing telehealth services and remote roles for staff