Achievement Awards Spotlight: Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital

July 12, 2024

HAP's annual Achievement Awards honor hospitals and health systems for their innovation, creativity, and commitment to patient care. The Achievement Awards showcase and share member hospitals’ and health systems’ successful programs and best practices.

This year, Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital received the Excellence in Care Award for its project to improve postpartum outcomes and decrease health care disparities in Hispanic patients.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The challenge:  The hospital set a goal to improve postpartum outcomes/decrease health care disparities and build trust with the Hispanic population, and address the impact of social risks on health.
• Taking action:  The hospital team implemented several initiatives, including expanded interpreter/translation services, updated educational resources, back-to-back appointment scheduling, establishment of a food pantry, increased social work hours, and tours of the inpatient units (in Spanish).
• Results:  The team noted an overall downward trend of complications in Hispanic postpartum patients and positive feedback (increased attentiveness, patience, and communication related to education) in interviews.
• Next steps:  Key elements of this initiative—including multidisciplinary review processes, screening for social determinants of health, and “meeting patients where they are"—are critical for other population health projects, the team noted.
• Quotable:  “Achievement of health equity requires recognition of disparity, exploration of contributing factors, implementation of a targeted response, and commitment to ongoing monitoring and analysis,” the team noted in its entry.

Congratulations to Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital for its outstanding efforts to support health equity and address disparities in care. Learn more about the project online.

Questions about the HAP Achievement Awards may be directed to HAP Member Services at (717) 561-5359.