WPIC Nurses Nationally Recognized for Quality Patient Care
PITTSBURGH, Jan. 21, 2010 – The Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) of UPMC has been recognized by the American Nurses Association (ANA) for consistently achieving outstanding patient outcomes through high-quality nursing care.
As one of six nationally recognized hospitals, WPIC participates in ANA’s National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI), which is the nation’s most comprehensive catalog of nursing-care outcomes that are tied directly to the high quality of nursing care at each facility.
“WPIC is one of the nation’s leaders in behavioral health care, and the quality and dedication of our nurses is certainly a key to our success,” said Claudia Roth, Ph.D., president and CEO of WPIC. “The ANA’s survey, in which 88 percent of our nurses participated, shows that our nurses are highly satisfied with our work environment, nurse leadership and management, collegial relationships and staffing models. We are honored to be recognized for creating an environment that embodies exceptional nursing practices, high nurse job satisfaction and world-class patient care.”
WPIC is among more than 1,500 hospitals – one in every four nationwide – that participate in ANA’s unique database, which allows individual nursing units to compare performance to similar units at other hospitals regionally, statewide and nationwide.
“WPIC exemplifies the commitment, leadership, data analysis and efficient use of resources that are needed by nursing executives and bedside nurses to produce the best possible patient outcomes,” said ANA President Rebecca M. Patton, M.S.N., R.N., C.N.O.R. “The NDNQI program is all about using evidence from the reporting of outcomes to improve nursing care practices, staffing and systems for care delivery, and WPIC has achieved that at a high level.”
Honored at the 4th Annual NDNQI Data Use Conference before an audience of nearly 1,000 nursing and health care quality leaders, the award winners demonstrated superior patient outcomes and high nurse job satisfaction on the 18 performance indicators tracked by NDNQI, such as hospital-acquired pressure ulcers, patient falls with injury, infections acquired as a result of hospitalization and nurse turnover.
NDNQI was established in 1998 as part of ANA’s National Center for Nursing Quality measurement services. In any given quarter, more than 12,000 nursing units are reporting performance data. This data can be used to determine links between patient outcomes and nurse staffing levels and skill mix, leading to more effective staffing plans. For more information on NDNQI and other ANA quality-related programs, visit http://www.ncnq.org.
About WPIC
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) is considered to be one of the nation’s foremost university-based psychiatric care facilities and one of the world’s leading centers for research and treatment of mental health disorders. WPIC houses the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and is the flagship of UPMC Behavioral Health, the psychiatric specialty division of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.