The Student Health Center (SHC) is one of two facilities to receive the 2013 Bernard Kershner Innovations in Quality Improvement Award from the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC).
The award is given to one primary care and one surgical facility from all AAAHC-accredited institutions across the United States, Canada and Mexico. The Student Health Center’s Genevieve Brauning, a physician, and Angela Allen, associate director of administrative services, will be presented the honor formally during the AAAHC’s Achieving Accreditation Education program in Las Vegas in December.
Brauning and Allen completed the study “Pap Test Guideline Adherence,” which was designed to ensure the Student Health Center was following 2009 guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists regarding the provision of Pap tests to women under the age of 21. The study examined the SHC’s compliance with guidelines from 2011 through 2013. The initial benchmark indicated a compliance of 9 percent; however, the SHC implemented a staff and patient education initiative that increased compliance to 98.4 percent by March 2013.
The SHC, as an AAAHC accredited primary care facility, must demonstrate an ongoing commitment to quality improvement. The Kershner Award is given in recognition of an organization’s development, implementation and demonstration of a successful and measurable quality improvement program.