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Monongahela Valley Hospital received accreditation from The Joint Commission in Advanced Disease-Specific Certification in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit national body that oversees the safety and quality of health care and other services provided in certified organizations. A surveyor from The Joint Commission evaluated Monongahela Valley Hospital for compliance with standards of care specific to the needs of patients.

According to The Joint Commission standards, the most successful COPD programs possess specific staff education requirements, the use of spirometry — a lung function test, smoking cessation, risk factor reduction, patient education on self-management of COPD and coordination of care.

"We put ourselves up to the highest level of scrutiny and an objective national surveyor said, 'You're doing an outstanding job with these patients and your staff members give them excellent care,'" said Senior Vice President Donna Ramusivich, FACHE. "The surveyor stated that he hadn't yet seen a COPD program so fully integrated with the community. He was very impressed."

MVH's Primary Care Resource Center (PCRC) played a key role in the survey and is the non-profit hospital's effort to better serve patients by reducing readmissions of chronic diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and congestive heart failure (CHF).

The PCRC staff follows patients in the hospital and after discharge. Its mission is to increase the quality of life for patients with chronic diseases, assist in the transition of care from hospital to home and decrease preventable readmissions. The program increases patient self-management through patient and family education, collaboration with community resources and improved communication with primary care providers.

The PCRC team is composed of staff from many departments and implements evidence-based health care and promotes optimal and ongoing healthy lifestyles. The PCRC leads the MVH team in providing a comprehensive program that enhances the interdisciplinary services offered to COPD patients, by including:

Inpatient nurse and pharmacist care management and educationTransition of care assistance between hospitalization and homePost-discharge follow-up and educationOutpatient education opportunities

MVH sponsors "Freedom from Smoking" cessation classes and the staff also offers patients a chance to learn from one another in its Better Breathers Club, which is free and meets the second Tuesday of each month to discuss breathing related issues.

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