Arrowsight Announces Appointment of Suzanne Delbanco as President of Health Care Division
Arrowsight, Inc. announced the appointment of Suzanne Delbanco, Ph. D. as president of its newly formed health care division. Delbanco will oversee Arrowsight Medical, which focuses on helping hospitals improve the quality and safety of their care by using video to measure adherence to protocols and provide feedback on performance to hospital staff. Prior to joining Arrowsight, Delbanco was CEO of The Leapfrog Group.
Mt. Kisco, New York (PRWEB) September 22, 2008
Arrowsight, Inc. today announced the appointment of Suzanne Delbanco, Ph. D. as president of its newly formed health care division. Delbanco will oversee Arrowsight Medical, which focuses on helping hospitals improve the quality and safety of their care by using video to measure adherence to protocols and provide feedback on performance to hospital staff.
Prior to joining Arrowsight, Delbanco was CEO of The Leapfrog Group, a Washington, D. C.-based organization driven by major employers and other health care purchasers working to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality and affordability of care. Among other accomplishments during her tenure there from 2000-2007, the proportion of hospital ICUs staffed by intensivists -- doctors with special training in critical care -- grew from 10% to almost 30%, saving an estimated 20,000 lives annually in the U. S.
Commenting on the appointment, Arrowsight CEO Adam Aronson, who supported The Leapfrog Group as a partner member and award sponsor, said, "Suzanne Delbanco has a proven track record in pioneering efforts designed to create change. We are excited to have her on our team as we continue rolling out a groundbreaking strategy to help hospitals and other health care settings improve the delivery of patient care."
Across multiple safety-sensitive business sectors such as food processing, food services and manufacturing, Arrowsight has helped improve practices, compliance and employee morale with long-lasting effects. In its first health care pilot, launched in January of 2007, Arrowsight's hospital video auditing service (HVA) improved hand-hygiene compliance from 38 to 90 percent within three months, and kept it above 90 percent for twelve months running.
"It is extremely gratifying, after a long and rigorous search, to find another opportunity to have an impact on the quality and safety of health care," said Delbanco. "While there is much activity in this arena, I found nothing as compelling as Arrowsight's approach. Arrowsight helps not just with improvement, but also with sustaining it. I'm thrilled to have the chance to make a measurable difference for patients, this time by giving hospitals new tools that help them get to the top of their game."
"Arrowsight's hospital video auditing service helps hospital administrators, physicians and nurses measure compliance rates and adherence to safety protocols across many critical control benchmarks. The video-based monitoring, assessments and workforce analytics provide an ongoing Hawthorne effect that is sorely missing in health care," explained Delbanco.
As part of its service, Arrowsight sends automated intra-shift emails to nurse managers and attending physicians that rank current shift performance metrics room by room. Additionally, Arrowsight automates the delivery of aggregate team metrics to LED boards at the work site, which are updated every ten minutes 24/7/365.
Aronson also noted, "As hospitals work to reduce the incidence of hospital acquired conditions, or so-called never events, Arrowsight can provide methodologies to improve hand hygiene, adherence to protocols for central line insertions, and other practices that reduce the incidence of some of the other preventable conditions for which Medicare and many other health care payers are no longer willing to absorb added costs."
Along with developing Arrowsight Medical, Delbanco will edit Patient Safety Focus (www. patientsafetyfocus. com), an Arrowsight-sponsored blog for health care workers, hospital administrators and insurers seeking new ways to improve patient safety. Patient Safety Focus welcomes contributions from experts in the field.
In addition to her duties at Arrowsight, Delbanco is on the Advisory Committee to the Director and the National Biosurveillance Advisory Subcommittee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the boards of Bridges to Excellence and Prometheus Payment, Inc., the SafeMed, Inc. Advisory Council, and in the Healthcare Executives Leadership Network. Modern Healthcare has regularly listed Delbanco as one of the 100 most powerful people in health care. She speaks frequently at conferences and has published several peer-reviewed articles on hospital quality and safety as well as consumer access to care.
About Arrowsight
Arrowsight (www. arrowsight. com), a Web-based Application Services Provider, is the leading developer of remote viewing services and software. Arrowsight has helped improve practices, compliance and employee morale in safety-sensitive industries, such as food processing, food services, manufacturing and health care. Go to http://www. arrowsight. com/public/as/html/medical/videos. asp (http://www. arrowsight. com/public/as/html/medical/videos. asp) for a brief introductory video on hospital video auditing.
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