Nanticoke Health Services’ diabetes self-management education program has been awarded continued recognition from the American Diabetes Association (ADA). The program was originally recognized in October 2008 and again in October 2013. Nanticoke’s diabetes education program offers high-quality education services to patients in Western Sussex County.
The ADA Education Recognition Program, begun in the fall of 1986, is a voluntary process which assures that approved education programs have met the National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education Programs. Programs that achieve recognition status have a staff of knowledgeable health professionals who can provide state-of-the-art information about diabetes management for participants.
Self-management education is an essential component of diabetes treatment. Compliance with the National Standards results in greater consistency in the quality and quantity of education offered to people with diabetes. The participant in an ADA-recognized program will be taught, as needed, self-care skills that will promote better management of his or her diabetes treatment regimen. All approved education programs cover the following topics as needed: diabetes disease process; nutritional management; physical activity; medications; monitoring; preventing, detecting, and treating acute complications; preventing, detecting, and treating chronic complications through risk reduction; goal setting and problem solving; psychological adjustment; and preconception care, management during pregnancy, and gestational management.
Assuring high-quality education for patient self-care is one of the primary goals of the Education Recognition Program. Through the support of the health care team and increased knowledge and awareness of diabetes, the patient can assume a major part of the responsibility for his/her diabetes management. Unnecessary hospital admissions and some of the acute and chronic complications of diabetes may be prevented through self-management education.
“The process gives professionals a national standard by which to measure the quality of the services they provide,” commented Lucinda Mancuso, Diabetes Education Program Coordinator at Nanticoke. “And, of course, it helps consumers to identify these quality programs.”
For more information about diabetes education and related services provided by Nanticoke Health Services, visit www.nanticoke.org/diabetes or call 302-629-6611, extension 2288.

Atlantic General Hospital and Health System, along with its partners, the Herschel S. Horowitz Center for Health Literacy at the University of Maryland College Park School of Public Health and Worcester County Public Schools, continue to make measurable improvements in the health literacy levels of elementary and middle school students in Worcester County.

Health literacy is measured by an individual’s ability to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. A high level of health literacy is crucial to achieving a healthy lifestyle and properly utilizing healthcare services.

Integrated Health Literacy Program (IHLP) standards help guide teachers in developing lesson plans for core area classrooms (math, reading language arts, science, and social studies) that include basic health literacy concepts and skills. The integrated lessons vary depending on grade level that the program is implemented.

Lesson topics include the role of heroin use in the criminal justice system in social studies class or how opioids affect the brain chemically during science class. During the 2016-2017 school year, seventh and eighth grade teachers at Stephen Decatur Middle School piloted the IHLP within their core area classrooms. The sixth grade curriculum was also expanded countywide, while teachers in grades one through five continued to implement the IHLP curriculum.

The IHLP completed its fourth year with pre-testing all sixth grade students in the county and seventh and eighth grade students at Stephen Decatur Middle School prior to implementation of the curriculum in the fall and then again post-curriculum implementation in the spring. The results for the 2016-2017 school year show demonstrate significant positive impact of the program.

In grades six, seven and eight, the average health literacy scores increased from pre-test to post-test. Other findings include:

• More 6th grade students at post-test reported talking about Internet safety with friends and family.
• There was a statistically significant increase in the percentage of students who moved into the highest health literacy score range. Sixth grade realized an increase of more than 15 percentage points. Seventh grade high health literacy scores increased by nearly 16 percentage points, and eighth grade by nearly eight points.
• At post-test, 69.5 percent of eighth graders reported being extremely confident they could say “no” when a friend is pressuring them to try illicit drugs such as heroin, a statistically significant improvement over pre-test results.

“Individuals have to understand basic health principles before they can become active and effective partners in their own care. We’re pleased with the results.” said Michael Franklin, CEO of Atlantic General Hospital.
During the current 2017-2018 school year, the IHLP is being implemented in grades 1-8 county-wide, the first year of full implementation of the program. The program currently serves more than 3,800 students. To learn more about the health literacy program please visit www.atlanticgeneral.org/healthliteracy.

About Atlantic General Hospital
Atlantic General Hospital has been providing quality health care to the residents of Worcester, Wicomico, Somerset (Md.) and Sussex (Del.) counties since May 1993. Built by the commitment and generosity of a dedicated community, the hospital’s state-of-the-art facility in Berlin, Md., combines old-fashioned personal attention with the latest in technology and services. It provides quality specialty care such as weight loss surgery, orthopedics, outpatient infusion and chemotherapy for individuals with cancer or blood/autoimmune disorders, and a comprehensive women’s diagnostic center. Atlantic General Health System, its network of more than 40 primary care providers and specialists, care for residents and visitors throughout the region. For more information about Atlantic General Hospital, visit www.atlanticgeneral.org.

The Nanticoke Physician Network, a part of Nanticoke Health Services, is proud to announce it has again received the highest level of recognition as a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). All seven Nanticoke Primary Care offices, including the newest office in Delmar, have achieved Level 3 Recognition with offices scoring 96.5 out of 100 points or higher.
The goal of the Nanticoke Physician Network is to be a patient’s partner in health by serving as patients’ medical home; promoting wellness and providing preventive care, using evidence-based guidelines, supporting self-management; and coordinating a range of health care needs for patients across all settings. Being a part of a PCMH, a patient has better access to the help and support needed to take control of his or her health; to begin to move toward a goal of proactively managing health – not just reacting to an episodic health condition or health crisis.
The PCMH establishes a partnership between the patient, family, primary care providers, care coordinators, specialists and community service agencies. Working together, this team is able to better manage chronic conditions like diabetes or hypertension; work together to reduce potential health problems; give attention to preventative medicine; and connect patients to resources, even those outside of the primary care practice, to reduce gaps in care. The PCMH concept provides higher quality care through strengthened physician-patient relationships. More proactive, coordinated care often results in more personalized, effective and efficient medicine, helps patients live healthier lives, and can help reduce the cost of care for patients.
“A key component of receiving Level 3 Recognition is the Electronic Medical Record (EMR),” said Dr. Harry Anthony, Medical Director for the Nanticoke Physician Network. “Nanticoke Physician Network has had an EMR system for several years now. We are currently working to connect the Network EMR system to the one at Nanticoke Memorial Hospital to make patient access to their health information even easier.” Using the EMR, health care providers working within the Network of employed physicians can seamlessly and transparently share information about a patient, providing better communication and easier collaboration. This has resulted in better care outcomes for patients. The EMR system also flags patients overdue for a screening or test, or might benefit from a preventative care measure. This information can be reviewed by the health care provider before a patient comes for a visit. Then, during the patient visit, staff can be more proactive in meeting a patient’s needs. It also provides patient access to routine test results, provides important education or recommendations from their provider, helps them track medication, and send secure messages to their Network office provider.
“As an organization, we are very proud of the Nanticoke Physician Network and the efforts made by all its team members to ensure our patients have access to quality health care,” said Thomas Brown, Senior Vice President of Nanticoke Health Services and President of the Nanticoke Physician Network. “The team works tirelessly to continuously improve coordination of care, remove barriers to care, and to move patients to the center of all we do.”
PCMH recognition is provided through the NCQA, a national non-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. Organizations using the NCQA symbol must pass a rigorous, comprehensive review, and must regularly report on performance. For consumers, this seal is a reliable indicator that an organization is well-managed and delivers high quality care and service.
To meet requirements for recognition as a Level 3 Patient-Centered Medical Home, the NCQA has established twenty-seven elements and 178 factors grouped into standards of care including Patient-Centered Access, Team-Based Care, Population Health Management, Care Management and Support, Care Coordination and Care Transitions, and Performance Measurement and Quality Improvement. Level 3 Recognition is the highest level of recognition available through the NCQA.
“We are transforming patient care across our network and have seen tremendous progress in quality outcomes for our patients using the PCMH model. We are working diligently, pushing the envelope of care coordination to help ensure all our patients receive recommended screenings ultimately preventing cancer and detecting it earlier when it is more treatable,” said Lara Hudson, Director of Clinical Operations for the Nanticoke Physician Network. “We live this patient-centered model every day from the multi-specialties at the Nanticoke Health Pavilion Seaford to our newly now incorporated Behavioral Health.”
Nanticoke Health Services includes Nanticoke Memorial Hospital, the Nanticoke Physician Network and the Nanticoke Health Foundation. Nanticoke Memorial Hospital was the first hospital on Delmarva to receive a 4-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and is the only hospital in Delaware and Maryland to be nationally recognized by Healthgrades with both the Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ and the Patient Safety Excellence Award™. Nanticoke holds a Level III Trauma Center certification, is nationally certified by the Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center, and is a Gold Plus Award performer according to the American Heart/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® program. Nanticoke’s Cancer Care Services holds Accreditation from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and is a member of the Association of Community Cancer Centers. Nanticoke’s medical staff includes over 160 health care providers practicing in 40 different specialties including the 55 providers employed within the Nanticoke Physician Network. For more information, visit www.nanticoke.org.

For many years, the cardiology staff at Nanticoke Health Services — a 99-bed, nonprofit, community hospital in Seaford, Delaware — had to manually review and assign every electrocardiogram (ECG) to a cardiologist.
This caused delays, especially during the weekend, as cardiologists did not receive assignments until the following Monday.
Also, without the ability to manage queues, providers who were out of the office commonly had a stack of ECG orders sitting in their queues which staff could not easily reassign.
Delays in ECG reviews also delayed patient care, and cardiologists knew they needed a different approach.
Enter Cerner’s PowerChart ECG™, which Nanticoke, a Cerner ITWorks℠ client, implemented in its electronic health record (EHR) in July 2016.
“ECGs can now be read immediately within the EHR and are visible to other providers for viewing. That wasn’t the case with our previous ECG system,” said Peter Rosen, director of cardiology services, Nanticoke Health Services. “Now that most ECGs are automatically matched, I finally have time to spend toward ECG quality. Plus, I can now see orders sitting in the queue without an attached ECG.”
Reducing processing delays
By implementing PowerChart ECG in Nanticoke’s EHR, most ECGs are automatically matched.
“On the previous system, manually matching orders took me more than an hour a day,” Rosen said. “Now, it takes me a few minutes.”
Cerner consultants worked closely with Nanticoke’s Cerner ITWorks team to ensure the ECG solution met the needs of the entire organization. With the new solution, cardiologists now read ECGs performed over the weekend in near real-time instead of waiting for a cardiologist’s assignment the following Monday, which can further reduce delays in patient care.
A new normal
Shared queues are the new normal for cardiologists at Nanticoke. If a cardiologist is out of the office, a colleague can read the next ECG in the queue.
Additionally, cardiologists now access and read ECGs from any location on any computer device as soon as ECGs are ready. Previously, cardiologists had to wait until the next morning to view the ECGs, a process that usually involved faxing the ECG, which reduced image quality.
Along these lines, providers and nurses no longer must physically retrieve and scan the ECG strips, which can potentially delay a diagnosis. A quick phone call from a nurse lets the cardiologist know it is available for viewing in the PowerChart ECG solution.
“I am extremely pleased with how PowerChart ECG improved the operations of the cardiology department,” said Rosen. “It helped eliminate value-less processes, accelerated ECG processing and improved visibility of ECG clinical data across our organization.”
“I wish we implemented it sooner,” he said.
Nanticoke Health Services includes Nanticoke Memorial Hospital, the Nanticoke Physician Network and the Nanticoke Health Foundation. Nanticoke Memorial Hospital was the first hospital on Delmarva to receive a 4-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and is the only hospital in Delaware and Maryland to be nationally recognized by Healthgrades with both the Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ and the Patient Safety Excellence Award. Nanticoke holds a Level III Trauma Center certification, is nationally certified by the Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center, and is a Gold Plus Award performer according to the American Heart/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines® program. Nanticoke’s Cancer Care Services holds Accreditation from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer and is a member of the Association of Community Cancer Centers. Nanticoke’s medical staff includes over 160 health care providers practicing in 40 different specialties including the 45 providers employed within the Nanticoke Physician Network.

At its annual Corporation Meeting, Atlantic General Hospital’s Board of Trustees voted in a new Board Chairman, Hugh T. Cropper, IV, who is the former Treasurer of the Board.
Hugh T. Cropper, is a graduate of Worcester Preparatory School in Berlin, the College of William and Mary and the University of Maryland Law School. Hugh practices as an attorney, and he is a partner in the law firm of Booth, Booth, Cropper & Marriner, PC. Cropper has represented local clients in and around Worcester County for nearly 29 years, including numerous charitable and pro bono clients. Most recently, Cropper represented Diakonia in connection with their new facility in West Ocean City. Cropper is the chairman of the Board of Directors for Bank of Ocean City. He is the chairman of the Board of Directors for the Lower Shore Land Trust. He was formerly a member of the Board of Governors of the Maryland State Bar Association, and he is a member of the Judicial Nominating Committee for the First Circuit. Hugh has been a member of the Board of Trustees of Atlantic General Hospital since 2007, and he is currently the chairman of the Quality Committee. He was formerly secretary of the Board of Trustees, and most recently served as treasurer. Cropper lives in the Berlin area with his wife, Jennifer, and his twins, Myra and Hugh Thomas. Cropper was born and raised in Worcester County and his grandfather, Hugh T. Cropper, was the former mayor of Ocean City. He is an active commercial fisherman, and he enjoys the outdoors, hunting, and fishing with his family. He is anxious to serve Atlantic General Hospital and the needs of the community. He will begin his term as board chair in November, 2017.
“We acknowledge Hugh’s dedication and hard work for Atlantic General,” commented Michael Franklin, FACHE, president and CEO of Atlantic General Hospital. “We are thrilled to welcome Hugh as the board chair. We are likewise especially grateful for the three years Lou Taylor served as our board chair, and the positive impact that he has made.”