Hitinder Gurm earns state award for patient safety and quality

MHA Keystone Center Patient Safety & Quality Leadership Award presented

The Michigan Health & Hospital Association presented its MHA Keystone Center Patient Safety & Quality Leadership Award to University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center cardiologist and IHPI member Hitinder Gurm, M.D., during the 2016 MHA Patient Safety and Quality Symposium held in Detroit this week.

Dr. Hitinder Gurm, interventional cardiologist at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center
The award recognizes individuals who demonstrate leadership in patient safety and quality improvement and whose contributions to the field transcend the bounds of their own hospital or health system.

Gurm who is associate chief of cardiovascular medicine at the U-M Health System directs both inpatient services in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and carotid interventions in cardiovascular medicine. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan nominated him for his visionary leadership as director of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Cardiovascular Consortium – Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Collaborative Quality Initiative (BMC2 PCI).

This statewide collaborative uses a registry of patient demographic, procedural and outcome data on every PCI (angioplasty) performed in Michigan hospitals. Its efforts have helped providers achieve significant reductions in key complications, including dye-induced kidney injury, vascular access complications, unnecessary blood transfusion and coronary artery bypass graft surgery.

Gurm led implementation of a site- and physician-specific Procedures Indications Report based on the American College of Cardiology PCI Appropriateness Criteria.

He engaged collaborative members in addressing the appropriateness of PCI by building an innovative tool that reduced the rate of potentially inappropriate angioplasties in Michigan from 8.6 percent to 1.7 percent over a four-year period.

Gurm has helped foster a culture in Michigan healthcare in which efforts and best thinking are pooled to continuously optimize practice, systems and outcomes of care. He has effectively engaged all Michigan hospitals that provide PCI so knowledge can be quickly disseminated, and alerts consortium participants of concerning trends and patterns so they can be addressed promptly.

Through his extensive writings, speaking engagements, inventions and development of PCI-related risk assessment tools, Gurm’s knowledgeable leadership extends throughout the world’s cardiology community.

Based in greater Lansing, the MHA advocates in Michigan and Washington, DC, on behalf of healthcare providers and the communities and patients they serve. The MHA is a nationally recognized leader on initiatives that protect and promote quality, cost-effective and accessible healthcare