• Women's Heart Care Initiative - Covenant Health hospitals and outreach programs are stepping to the forefront as leaders in education, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease among women. With heart disease as the greatest threat to a woman's health, Covenant Health has created opportunities for women to learn more about risk factors, heart disease prevention, and recognition of symptoms. Research among area women has demonstrated an increased public awareness about women and heart disease.

  Projects associated with Covenant Health's Women's Heart Care initiative have included comprehensive community screenings, "Go Red" fashion shows, lighting hospital buildings red in observance of Heart Month, information kits, walking programs, Covenant-sponsored television coverage, and employee/physician awareness campaigns.

• Stroke Centers of Excellence - Covenant Health hospitals are working diligently to provide excellent care for stroke patients through the use of evidence-based treatment protocols, JCAHO standards, and other internal quality measures. Although stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, the risk of dying from a stroke is less than half what it was 20 years ago.

• Institute for Healthcare Improvement "100,000 Lives" Campaign - All Covenant Health hospitals are among nearly 2,000 hospitals nationwide which are members of an IHI campaign to implement changes in care that have been proven to prevent avoidable deaths. Among the campaign's initial initiatives are deployment of rapid response teams, delivery of evidence-based care for heart attack, preventing adverse drug events, preventing central line infections, preventing surgical site infections and preventing ventilator-assisted pneumonia.

• Transformation of the ICU Project - Parkwest, Fort Sanders Regional, Fort Sanders Sevier and Methodist Medical Centers are partnering with other critical care units in a nationwide collaboration to provide the best quality and safest care to critically ill patients and their families. Participants include community hospitals and tertiary teaching centers such as Johns Hopkins and Baylor Health Care System.

  Through TICU, hospitals are developing physician-led, multi-professional ICU teams, and implementing the physician role of "intensivist." Implementation of evidence-based therapeutic approaches have demonstrated that basic changes to care processes can decrease complications, length of stay, and staff turnover, while increasing patient and family satisfaction.

For additional information about Covenant Health's commitment to quality care or assistance in locating a medical service, call 865-541-4500.