Northern Westchester Hospital Association

IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Vizient, Inc. today announced 2023’s top performers in clinical quality and supply chain excellence. The awards recognize the work of Vizient provider customers in clinical quality and accountability, supplier diversity and environmentally preferred sourcing excellence. The awards were presented during the 2023 Vizient Connections Summit held Sept. 18-21 in Las Vegas. “Top performers demonstrate qualities of leadership and adaptability, and they leverage advanced analytics to enable their organizations to improve performance across the care continuum and in their communities,” said Byron Jobe, chief executive officer for Vizient. “These organizations set a high standard in patient care and we are proud to recognize their achievements.” The Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, Quality Leadership Award recognizes participating healthcare organizations in four cohorts through the Vizient Quality and Accountability Study, which measures performance on the quality of patient care in six domains: safety, mortality, effectiveness, efficiency, patient centeredness and equity. The study factors in measures from the Vizient Clinical Data Base and includes performance data from the HCAHPS survey and the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network. Top performers in the comprehensive academic medical center cohort are: NYU Langone Health Rush University Medical Center Mayo Clinic in Rochester Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Froedtert Hospital UC San Diego Health System Intermountain Medical Center UCSF Medical Center Memorial Hermann - Texas Medical Center University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics UC Irvine Medical Center Cleveland Clinic Houston Methodist Hospital Top performers in the large, specialized complex care medical center cohort are: NYU Langone Hospital - Long Island Utah Valley Regional Medical Center McKay-Dee Hospital Cleveland Clinic - Fairview Hospital St. George Regional Hospital Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire NYU Langone Hospital - Brooklyn ThedaCare Regional Medical Center - Neenah Missouri Baptist Medical Center Fairview Southdale Hospital Mayo Clinic in Arizona Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center NorthShore Edward-Elmhurst Health Evanston Mayo Clinic in Florida Northwestern Medicine Central Dupage Hospital Top performers in the complex care medical center cohort are: Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital Houston Methodist Sugar Land Houston Methodist West Hospital Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital Memorial Hermann - Pearland Hospital Penn Medical Chester County Hospital Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital Inova Loudoun Hospital NorthShore Highland Park Hospital Rockledge Regional Medical Center Hays Medical Center University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center Northern Westchester Hospital Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital Elmhurst Memorial Hospital Duke Regional Hospital UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital AdventHealth Fish Memorial Top performers in the community hospital cohort are: Layton Hospital Novant Health Mint Hill Medical Center Parkview Noble Hospital Methodist Hospital Hill Country Lehigh Valley Hospital - Hecktown Oaks Cedar City Hospital Corewell Health Zeeland Mayo Clinic Health System in Red Wing Parkview Huntington Hospital Parkview Whitley Hospital Sharon Hospital Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital Parkview Dekalb Hospital Essentia Health Detroit Lakes Allina Health Owatonna Hospital Prisma Health Baptist Parkridge Hospital Ochsner Medical Center – Hancock American Fork Hospital Northern Dutchess Hospital Fairview Northland Regional Hospital Fairview Range Medical Center The Rising Star Award recognizes comprehensive academic medical centers that made significant improvement in care quality, measured by a rise in at least 20 positions in the annual Vizient Quality and Accountability Study from the prior year and scoring in the top 25. Rising Stars are: Corewell Health Grand Rapids Sanford Broadway Medical Center M Health Fairview – UMMC The Vizient Ambulatory Quality and Accountability Award measures the quality of outpatient care in five domains: access to care, continuum of care, quality, efficiency, and equity. The composite scoring system uses patient-level data from the AAMC-Vizient Clinical Practice Solutions Center®, Vizient Access and Throughput data, as well as data from the Vizient Clinical Data Base. Top performers are: NYU Langone Health University of Utah Health Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical Group Stony Brook Medicine Clinical Practice Management Plan Inc Rush University Medical Group The Vizient Supplier Diversity Excellence Award recognizes provider customers in each cohort on how they champion inclusion in their supply chain and accelerate economic growth in their local community. Selection criteria is based on contract purchases of minority-, women-, veteran-, LGBT- and disabled person-owned business enterprises as a percentage of a provider customer’s Vizient spend. The top performer in the comprehensive academic medical center cohort is: Rush System for Health The top performer in the large, specialized complex care medical center cohort is: North Broward Hospital District The top performer in the complex care medical center cohort is: University Health Truman Medical Centers The top performer in the community hospitals cohort is: Stillwater Medical Center Authority The Environmentally Preferred Sourcing Excellence Award ranks members in each cohort on contributions to human and environmental health through responsible purchasing decisions. Ranking is based on the purchase of products that meet Vizient’s Environmentally Preferred Purchasing Standard, which includes all Vizient-identified chemical attributes and at least two waste attributes, as a percentage of Vizient spend. The top performer in the comprehensive academic medical center cohort is: New York-Presbyterian Hospital The top performer in the large, specialized complex care medical center cohort is: Mosaic Health System The top performer in the complex care medical center cohort is: Tift Regional Health System Inc The top performer in the community hospitals cohort is: Unity Physicians Hospital The top performer in the children’s hospital cohort is: Valley Childrens Healthcare About Vizient, Inc. Vizient, Inc., the nation’s largest provider-driven healthcare performance improvement company, serves more than 60% of the nation’s acute care providers, which includes 97% of the nation’s academic medical centers, and more than 25% of the non-acute care market. Vizient provides expertise, analytics and advisory services, as well as a contract portfolio that represents more than $130 billion in annual purchasing volume. Vizient’s solutions and services improve the delivery of high-value care by aligning cost, quality and market performance. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Vizient has offices throughout the United States. Learn more at .

WEDNESDAY, May 17, 2023 -- Combining a swallowable gastric balloon with a weight loss drug may be a way to lose significant body weight, a new study suggests. In about eight months of combination treatment, participants lost an average of 19% of their body weight, and significantly reduced their body mass index (BMI), researchers report. "Combination therapy gives providers much flexibility and further options in managing obesity in patients who need additional weight loss or increased durability," said lead researcher Dr. Roberta Ienca, from the Nuova Villa Claudia Clinic in Rome, Italy. "The ease of use and low rate of adverse events make it an ideal primary weight loss therapy that can be complemented by medications or other treatments," she added. Gastric balloons for weight loss are not new, but they haven't been popular because they require an endoscopy for placement, the study authors said. This new swallowable balloon from Allurion Technologies eliminates the need for a medical procedure. (Ienca and her two co-authors are advisors for Allurion.) In the noninvasive procedure, the balloon is swallowed as a capsule and is filled with liquid after it reaches the stomach. The outpatient procedure takes about 20 minutes. After about 16 weeks, the balloon is excreted naturally. The balloon reduces the amount of food that can be ingested, which leads to weight loss. Taking the diabetes drug liraglutide (Saxenda) enhances feelings of fullness and suppresses appetite, adding to the weight loss, the researchers noted. Liraglutide is a glucagon like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA). Not all weight-loss experts believe gastric balloons are a solution to obesity, however, largely because they're temporary. "I do not recommend a balloon to my patients unless they have a short-term need for something, say it's not safe to get a transplant or it's not safe to get a knee or hip replacement," said Dr. Jamie Kane , director of Northwell Health Center for Weight Management, in Great Neck, N.Y. According to Kane, better options for the long term include bariatric surgery, newer drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy (semaglutide), and, of course, lifestyle changes including a healthy diet, portion control and exercise. "You should always be thinking long term — that's the main advice," added Kane, who played no role in the research. Dr. Mitchell Roslin , director of bariatric surgery at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y., isn't a fan of the gastric balloon, either. "By putting a balloon in people they lose a lot of weight early, but ultimately the thermostat or the energy regulation center in the brain isn't going to be reset," said Roslin, who wasn't involved in the study. The prolonged weight loss is mostly due to the medication. "If you didn't have the medication, they'd regain all of their weight after the balloon is removed," Roslin said. "The effective tools that we have are bariatric surgical procedures and the GLP analogs," he said. "What they both share in common is they change the energy regulation center in the brain." "Temporary devices are just that, they're temporary," Roslin added. Weight loss is a "lifetime commitment no matter what you do." The study included 181 obese men and women whose average weight was 209 pounds. All got the balloon and were also given liraglutide, which controls the release of insulin in the pancreas and causes weight loss. The drug was started one to four months after balloon placement. After 16 weeks, participants lost an average of 29 pounds and 14% of their initial body weight. They also shed an average of 74% excess weight. After the balloon passed from the body, patients were put on a Mediterranean diet and followed for at least six months. Neither treatment was linked to serious side effects. Side effects from the balloon include nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps. Four patients had the balloon removed due to intolerance, gastric dilation or early balloon deflation, the researchers noted. Side effects from liraglutide included nausea, diarrhea, constipation and headache. Four participants discontinued the drug because of a fast heartbeat, chest pain or gastrointestinal symptoms. The findings were scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the annual meeting of the European Congress on Obesity, in Dublin, Ireland. Research presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Sources Roberta Ienca, MD, Nuova Villa Claudia Clinic, Rome, Italy Mitchell Roslin, MD, director, Bariatric Surgery Program, Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco, N.Y. Jamie Kane, MD, director, Northwell Health Center for Weight Management, Great Neck, N.Y. presentation, European Congress on Obesity, Dublin, Ireland, May 17, 2023 Posted May 2023

WEDNESDAY, May 17, 2023 -- Combining a swallowable gastric balloon with a weight loss drug may be a way to lose significant body weight, a new study suggests. In about eight months of combination treatment, participants lost an average of 19% of their body weight, and significantly reduced their body mass index (BMI), researchers report. "Combination therapy gives providers much flexibility and further options in managing obesity in patients who need additional weight loss or increased durability," said lead researcher Dr. Roberta Lenca, from the Nuova Villa Claudia Clinic in Rome, Italy. "The ease of use and low rate of adverse events make it an ideal primary weight loss therapy that can be complemented by medications or other treatments," she added. Gastric balloons for weight loss are not new, but they haven't been popular because they require an endoscopy for placement, the study authors said. This new swallowable balloon from Allurion Technologies eliminates the need for a medical procedure (Lenca and her two co-authors are advisors for Allurion.) In the noninvasive procedure, the balloon is swallowed as a capsule and filled with liquid after it reaches the stomach. The outpatient procedure takes about 20 minutes. After about 16 weeks, the balloon is excreted naturally. The balloon reduces the amount of food that can be ingested, which leads to weight loss. Taking the diabetes drug liraglutide (Saxenda) enhances feelings of fullness and suppresses appetite, adding to the weight loss, the researchers noted. Liraglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA). Not all weight-loss experts believe gastric balloons are a solution to obesity, however, largely because they're temporary. "I do not recommend a balloon to my patients unless they have a short-term need for something, say it's not safe to get a transplant or it's not safe to get a knee or hip replacement," said Dr. Jamie Kane , director of Northwell Health Center for Weight Management, in Great Neck, N.Y. According to Kane, better options for the long term include bariatric surgery, newer drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy (semaglutide), and, of course, lifestyle changes including a healthy diet, portion control and exercise. "You should always be thinking long term — that's the main advice," added Kane, who played no role in the research. Dr. Mitchell Roslin , director of bariatric surgery at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, N.Y., isn't a fan of the gastric balloon, either. "By putting a balloon in people they lose a lot of weight early, but ultimately the thermostat or the energy regulation center in the brain isn't going to be reset," said Roslin, who wasn't involved in the study. The prolonged weight loss is mostly due to the medication. "If you didn't have the medication, they'd regain all of their weight after the balloon is removed," Roslin said. "The effective tools that we have are bariatric surgical procedures and the GLP analogs," he said. "What they both share in common is they change the energy regulation center in the brain." "Temporary devices are just that, they're temporary," Roslin added. Weight loss is a "lifetime commitment no matter what you do." The study included 181 obese men and women whose average weight was 209 pounds. All got the balloon and were also given liraglutide, which controls the release of insulin in the pancreas and causes weight loss. The drug was started one to four months after balloon placement. After 16 weeks, participants lost an average of 29 pounds and 14% of their initial body weight. They also shed an average of 74% excess weight. After the balloon passed from the body, patients were put on a Mediterranean diet and followed for at least six months. Neither treatment was linked to serious side effects. Side effects from the balloon include nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps. Four patients had the balloon removed due to intolerance, gastric dilation or early balloon deflation, the researchers noted. Side effects from liraglutide included nausea, diarrhea, constipation and headache. Four participants discontinued the drug because of a fast heartbeat, chest pain or gastrointestinal symptoms. The findings were scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the annual meeting of the European Congress on Obesity, in Dublin, Ireland. Research presented at medical meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal. Sources Roberta Ienca, MD, Nuova Villa Claudia Clinic, Rome, Italy Mitchell Roslin, MD, director, Bariatric Surgery Program, Northern Westchester Hospital, Mount Kisco, N.Y. Jamie Kane, MD, director, Northwell Health Center for Weight Management, Great Neck, N.Y. presentation, European Congress on Obesity, Dublin, Ireland, May 17, 2023 Posted May 2023