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(Oakbrook Terrace, Ill. - November 29, 2004) The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations today named Novant Health, Winston-Salem and Charlotte, North Carolina, a 2004 winner of the eighth annual Ernest A. Codman Award to recognize excellence in the use of outcomes measurement to achieve improvements in the quality and safety of health care.

Novant Health is the recipient of the award in the multi-organization category for establishing a system to reduce adverse drug events related to the use of the anti-blood clotting medicine Warfarin. As a result, Novant has experienced a 38 percent reduction in Warfarin administration-related adverse drug events for its inpatient population and a 51 percent decrease for patients treated in outpatient settings. Patients taking Warfarin can include those suffering from stroke, heart and vascular disease, blood conditions and arthritis. The medication helps prevent complications which might occur because a patient's blood clots too early.

Named for the physician regarded in health care as the "father of outcomes measurement," the Ernest A. Codman Award showcases the effective use of performance measurement by health care organizations to improve the quality and safety of health care. The Joint Commission also recognizes an individual who has played a significant leadership role in promoting the use of performance measures to improve health care services, or who has made major contributions to the development and testing of performance measures or the science and art of quality improvement. A panel of national experts in quality measurement and improvement selected the seven recipients of the 2004 Awards.

"We applaud the winners of the 2004 Codman Awards for achieving improvements that are measurably advancing health care," says Dennis S. O'Leary, M.D., president, Joint Commission. "These leaders are truly the vanguard of raising the bar for health care quality."

"We recognize the prestige associated with the Codman Award," comments Paul Wiles, president and CEO, Novant Health. "We also understand the real significance of this honor and its humbling message. Our physicians and staff improved the quality of care for a group of patients, whose lives are better because of this initiative. And we need to be relentless in improving the quality of medicine, for each and every person who entrusts their care to us."

Novant initiated the Warfarin project after participating in a national collaboration among 13 health systems and hospitals to collect data from patient charts. Discovering that one of the most common preventable adverse drugs events was related to Warfarin therapy, leadership at Novant became involved in the initiative and held themselves personally accountable for performance outcomes. The organization also developed real-time, alert-based interventions, established better monitoring and education for patients and initiated overall better anticoagulation management for patients.

The not-for-profit Novant Health provides advanced medical treatments and procedures for 3.4 million residents in western North Carolina. The organization operates seven hospitals, two nursing homes and senior residential facilities, physician practices, outpatient surgery centers, rehabilitation and community health outreach programs.

Novant Health will formally receive the award on Thursday, December 2, during the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and Joint Commission Resources' National Conference on Quality and Patient Safety in Health Care in Chicago. Other award winners include: Sundown Ranch, Canton, Texas (behavioral health care); Medco Health Solutions, Franklin Lakes, New Jersey (home care); Stamford Hospital, Stamford, Connecticut, and Staten Island University Hospital, Staten Island, New York (hospital); and Life Care Center of Sarasota, Sarasota, Florida (long term care). Stephen F. Jencks, M.D., M.P.H., director of Quality Coordination for the Office of Clinical Standards and Quality at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is the individual award winner.