Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper. That’s exactly what Robert Hayes, MD, Chief of Inpatient Medicine and Chair of Saratoga Hospital’s Quality and Patient Safety Committee, did when test results for a common bacterial infection didn’t add up.

His persistence—and his involvement of a multidisciplinary team of experts—led to an innovative approach that improved patient care and earned Saratoga Hospital the 2020 Pinnacle Award for Quality and Patient Safety from the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS). 

Here’s a brief except from the HANYS profile about Saratoga Hospital’s success. 

Saratoga Hospital teamwork reduces infections

Education, cooperation across the board and the adoption of a new testing algorithm all contributed to Saratoga’s success

Almost every month, Dr. Robert Hayes found himself flagging a case of Clostridioides difficile infection at Saratoga Hospital that just didn’t seem right.

Although they’d tested positive, the patient’s symptoms didn’t fit C. difficile — a bacterium that can cause diarrhea and colitis.
Hayes, chief of inpatient medicine and chair of the quality and patient safety committee, decided to dig deeper into the data.

That digging led to a new testing algorithm which, combined with changes in education and culture at Saratoga Hospital, resulted in a 50% reduction in hospital-onset C. difficile in just one year. Read more.