C.A.R.E. Award Winner Announced

The first ever NACHRI C.A.R.E. Award was presented by NACHRI President and CEO Lawrence McAndrews during the chairman's luncheon. The Champion of Analytics and Research Excellence (C.A.R.E.) Award was developed to:

• Recognize and reward commitment to the advancement of efficiency, safety, and effectiveness in health care through data and research
• Stimulate all children’s hospitals to share data and best practices
• Optimize the use of NACHRI Analytics data in member hospitals

The award was created by NACHRI Council on Management Information Services led by Jim Shmerling to recognize exceptional use of NACHRI Analytics programs. The MIS Council judged the entries, and looked for demonstrated improvement in efficiency, safety, timeliness and effectiveness of care in each competing hospital. The three C.A.R.E. Award finalists are:

• Kosair Children's Hospital, Justine O’Flynn, “Using VPS data outside the walls of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit”
• Blythedale Children's Hospital, Linda Hurwitz, “NACHRI Specialty Hospital CLA-BSI Project: The Children’s Hospital Experience”
• Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Dr. Tom Rice and Dr. Ramesh Sachdeva, “Combining NACHRI Analytics for Identifying National Best Practices and Accelerating Local Improvement”

The C.A.R.E. winner is Justine O'Flynn for her work using VPS data outside the walls of the PICU to transform child abuse evaluation and treatment response. O'Flynn has been a pediatric critical care nurse for almost 40 years. She is currently patient care data system analyst for the "Just for Kids" Critical Care Center at Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville, KY. She has been the VPS site coordinator since August of 2001 and has participated as an alpha and a beta "tester" for many of the VPS upgrades. She developed a passion for child abuse prevention as a bedside nurse while caring for young babies with inflicted abusive head trauma. O'Flynn is currently the chairperson of the Child Abuse Task Force at Kosair Children's Hospital. Congratulations to Justine O'Flynn for her amazing work!