Central Baptist Hospital was awarded the Kentucky Hospital Association’s highest quality honor, its Annual Quality Award, at the KHA Awards Gala May 14 in Louisville.

The Quality Award honors hospital leadership and innovation in quality, safety and commitment in patient care. Central Baptist was recognized specifically for its Total Joint Project, a multidisciplinary team approach to improving the hospital’s total hip and knee joint replacement services.

Some of the advancements implemented in the project include:

• A redesign of the content and format of its pre-operative joint replacement education class,
• Establishment of a “one call” scheduling process for pre-admission testing, pre-registration, the pre-operative class, surgery, and a reservation for complimentary night’s stay at a hotel for patients who lived more than 90 miles away,
• Renovation of the post-operative nursing unit to include a satellite physical therapy service, and
• An update of the unit environment to incorporate a popular equine art theme, which was then carried over into updated patient education materials.

Patient outcome and surgeon satisfaction levels have increased since the project’s improvements were implemented in 2005, and both complication rates and average length-of-stay outcomes have significantly decreased for hip and knee replacement patients.

The KHA Quality Award is the latest recognition the hospital has received for its Total Joint Project efforts. As a result of the initiative, Central Baptist was named one of the top 50 orthopedic hospitals by U.S. News and World Report in 2006.