Utah Valley Specialty Hospital has been announced as the 2019 winner of the “President’s Award.” The award is presented annually to the hospital with the greatest year-over-year improvement in the Ernest Health system.
“Our hospital is full of staff who are truly great in their role,” said David Harkness, an occupational therapist at Utah Valley Specialty Hospital. “But it is our staff’s interdisciplinary respect and efforts to work together that has enabled us to consistently have such good patient outcomes, and ultimately be awarded the President’s Award.”
Utah Valley Specialty Hospital is the first hospital in Utah to earn The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for Respiratory Failure. We are proud to be a “Center of Excellence” for all respiratory failure patients, including those who require prolonged ventilator management and weaning.
Respiratory failure occurs when there isn’t enough oxygen passing from the lungs into the body’s blood stream to help the body’s organs – such as the heart and brain – function properly. We treat numerous medical, surgical, or traumatic conditions that can potentially result in respiratory failure, including:
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
Pneumonia
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
Other medical or surgical complications that require prolonged mechanical ventilation
Interstitial lung disease and other pulmonary diseases that require high-flow oxygen
Conditions that affect the nerves and muscles that control breathing such as stroke, spinal cord injuries, and muscular dystrophy
To achieve the best possible results for our patients, we utilize best practices and evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. These include:
Registered dietitians Anne Woodbury, of Utah Valley Specialty Hospital, and Jill Marshall, of Northern Idaho Advanced Care Hospital, recently were selected to present a poster on an initiative regarding how nutrition affect patients on ventilators at the national ASPEN 2018 Nutrition Science and Practice Conference in Las Vegas.
Titled “Nutrition Administration and Ventilator Weaning in Long-Term Acute Care,” the abstract also was published in the January 2018 Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition supplement.
These dietitians have been working on data collections and how nutrition promotes successful ventilator weaning.
