Five Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) hospitals are being honored as part of the inaugural class of The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania’s (HAP) Excellence in Patient Safety Recognition program.

Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH) - Cedar Crest, Salisbury Township; LVH - Muhlenberg, Bethlehem; LVH - Hazleton, Hazleton; LVH - Pocono, East Stroudsburg, and LVH - Schuylkill, East Norwegian Street, Pottsville, received HAP’s Excellence in Patient Safety Recognition for 2018.

LVH - 17th Street, Allentown, and LVH - Schuylkill, South Jackson Street, Pottsville, are licensed under two of the hospitals recognized and were included in HAP’s data assessment.

“We are so pleased to have been distinguished by HAP for excellence in patient safety,” said Matthew McCambridge, MD, LVHN Chief Quality Officer. “Providing safe patient care is foundational to all we do at LVHN and we are driven to continue to advance patient safety wherever and whenever we provide care.”

HAP launched the Excellence in Patient Safety program in 2018 to recognize Pennsylvania’s top-performing hospitals that have demonstrated low rates of health care-associated infections.

The program utilizes data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network.

It identifies and recognizes those member hospitals that perform better than the mean standardized infection ratio across Pennsylvania in three key measures: central line-associated bloodstream infection, catheter-associated urinary tract infection, and clostridium difficile infections. LVHN’s hospitals are among just 24 hospitals being recognized this year.

The recognition is open to all Pennsylvania hospitals. A full list of winners can be found at HAP’s website.