Richard Goldstein, MD, senior vice president, Yale New Haven Health, recognizes staff nominated for the Great Catch Award throughout the fourth quarter of 2023:
Katharine Straw, APRN, earned her Great Catch Award for preventing a patient from being seen with an incorrect medical chart. Point-of-care testing and vitals were completed before the visit and documented in a chart belonging to a patient with a similar name. Upon recognizing the inconsistencies, e.g., misspelling of patient name and date of birth, Katharine stopped the appointment and the correct medical history was obtained.
Trish Monaghan, practice supervisor, prevented incorrect information being saved in a patient’s medical chart. A refill request came in for a patient, and upon review of the electronic medical record, Rita Amendola, APRN, noted the patient was apparently seeing a new clinician in another healthcare network. The patient was immediately contacted, and it was confirmed that was not the case. Rita brought this information to Trish’s attention, and upon deeper investigation, it was determined that the notes in Care Everywhere were for another patient with the same name, but different date of birth, address and phone number. Trish connected with our Epic team, who advised her to contact the other healthcare network, escalate the situation to their Care Everywhere department, and correct their error.
“I would like to thank each nominee for their exceptional attention to detail and commitment to high-reliability practices,” said Dr. Goldstein. “It is your dedication to a culture of safety and situational awareness that allow NEMG to provide exceptional patient care to the communities we serve. It is a privilege for me to acknowledge and recognize members of the NEMG team who truly exemplify outstanding behaviors and have such a positive impact on the patients we care for.”
The Great Catch Award is presented to someone who prevents a specific incident of patient harm or is responsible for a system change that lowers the risk for patient harm. Great Catches can be clinical or non-clinical.
