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Innovation and Excellence
Gage Awards
Through the Gage Awards, the association recognizes members for implementing successful improvement projects; spreads best practices and innovative programs to other organizations; and supports our research, policy, and advocacy work by sharing stories of members’ success with external audiences.
Gage Awards
Population Health
Winner
Harris Health System
Community Health Worker Visits for High-Risk Diabetes Patients
Winner
The MetroHealth System
Institute for H.O.P.E. School Health Program
Quality
Winner
Memorial Healthcare System
Keep Your Move in the Tube
Honorable Mention
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center
Social Medicine Program
Innovations
raise the bar for innovative responses to the many challenges of COVID-19.
Harborview Medical Center, Seattle
Harborview Medical Center partnered with Public Health—Seattle & King County (PHSKC) to improve access to COVID-19 testing and vaccination for low-income and minority populations, people with limited English proficiency (LEP), and people experiencing homelessness. Harborview created mobile walk-up, no-cost testing and vaccination sites at locations that were easily accessible and trusted by at-risk communities, including churches, mosques, schools, housing units, homeless shelters, encampments, and food banks.
From April 2020 to March 2021, Harborview and PHSKC performed 21,758 COVID-19 tests at more than 50 sites. From February to October 2021, mobile outreach teams administered 9,457 vaccine doses at more than 97 locations; of those vaccinated, 70 percent identified as Black, indigenous, and people of color, one-third were from a LEP population, and 14 percent were housing insecure.
University Medical Center of El Paso, El Paso, Texas
Since December 2020, University Medical Center of El Paso has administered 327,000 COVID-19 vaccines through a central hub site, four neighborhood health clinics, a mobile health clinic, and two county jail facilities. UMC also staffed Texas’ first binational COVID-19 vaccine effort between El Paso and its sister city, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, which had a 30 percent vaccination rate before the health system intervened.
As of November 29, 2021, 91.7 percent of community members 65 and older were fully vaccinated and 99.9 percent were partially vaccinated. As of early October, 75.8 percent of those 12 and older were fully vaccinated and 87.9 percent partially vaccinated, and 69.3 percent of those 5 and older were fully vaccinated and 84.7 percent partially vaccinated.
University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas
To help physicians and patients interpret test results for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) pathology faculty in October 2020 developed a compendium of expert interpretive commentary and a supporting application that applies these comments to tests and delivers them to physicians and patients.
In 13 months, UTMB completed more than 325,000 test interpretations and monitored COVID-19 outcomes to assess whether better distribution of COVID-19 test results reduced diagnostic ambiguity and led to better outcomes. UTMB had:
- a mean length of stay of 6.5 days, compared with an 8.3-day regional average and 9.1-day national average;
- a 4.4 percent rate of escalation to the intensive care unit, compared with a 22.6 percent regional rate and 23.3 percent national rate; and
- a mortality rate of 7 percent, compared with a 10.1 percent regional rate and 12.7 percent national rate.
Categories
Population Health
Gage Awards for population health recognize successful programs that aim to improve health outcomes for a defined population or community by addressing social and economic factors that influence health.
Population health programs are not all alike, but key features may include:
- working outside the walls of the hospital to care for or improve the health of individuals in a specified geographic area (e.g., county or city);
- a focus on promoting equitable health outcomes for marginalized populations;
- using community-based resources to support population health;
- mitigating social and economic barriers to good health (e.g., housing instability, food insecurity, utility needs, interpersonal violence, and lack of transportation)
- creating a learning organization capable of rapid deployment of best practices; and
- forming partnerships in the community to improve population health.
Highly competitive programs will be innovative; engage the community and patients from design to completion; and partner with community-based organizations to reduce health disparities, improve health equity, or combat structural racism in marginalized populations.
- Judging Criteria
- The project is innovative, featuring new or original methods, implementation, or delivery.
- The project was well-defined.
- A rigorous needs assessment and program evaluation were used.
- The program addressed the upstream factors or social determinants of health.
- The program was accessible to geographically based individuals, not just patients already attributed to the health care system.
- The program seeks to reduce health disparities, improve health equity, or combat structural racism in marginalized populations.
- Patients, families, and the community were engaged in the design, planning, or development of the program.
- The program effectively used community-based resources and partnered with other community organizations.
- At least one year of data was reported.
- The results and baseline data demonstrate improved health outcomes.
Quality
Gage Awards for quality recognize activities that improve the quality of care delivered, improve patient experience, engage patients and their families, reduce staff burnout, or reduce or eliminate harmful events affecting individual patients or groups of patients.
Improvement programs may include the use of evidence-based interventions, standardized practices, bundles of care, and checklists. Highly competitive programs will be innovative, show leadership commitment, and engage the community and patients from design to completion to reduce health disparities, improve health equity, or combat structural racism in marginalized populations.
- Judging Criteria
- The project is innovative, featuring new or original methods, implementation, or delivery.
- The project was well-defined.
- A form of evaluation was used.
- Leadership was engaged in the project.
- Front-line staff was involved in the project.
- Patients or families were engaged in the design, planning, or development of the program.
- At least one year of data was reported.
- The project results demonstrate improved outcomes.
- The project’s outcomes promoted health equity, reduced health disparities, or combated structural racism in marginalized populations.
COVID-19 Innovations (Temporary Category)
Gage Awards in the COVID-19 innovations category highlight innovative practices, projects, and programs to address the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. This temporary category captures creative solutions hospitals implemented to address the current or potential future pandemics within the hospital or in their community.
COVID-19 innovations are not all alike, but may include data and population surveillance, testing, communications, therapeutics, vaccine development, clinical trials or research, disparities reduction, community outreach, workforce programs, mental health programs, telehealth, empowering residents, resilience planning, addressing burnout, combatting structural racism, or supply chain modifications. This is not an exhaustive list.
Well-qualified programs will feature new or original methods, engage the community and patients from design to completion, and promote health, reduce health disparities, or combat structural racism with a COVID-19 lens.
A winner and an honorable mention will not be selected from this category. Rather, three submissions will receive recognition for their innovations.
- Judging Criteria
- The project is innovative, featuring new or original methods, implementation, or delivery.
- The project was well-defined.
- A form of evaluation was used.
- Patients, families, or the community were engaged and involved in the project including, but not limited to, sharing information.
- The project uniquely addresses barriers and supports their hospital or community during the coronavirus pandemic.
- The project made progress toward improved outcomes.
- The project’s outcomes promoted health equity, reduced health disparities, or combated structural racism in marginalized populations.
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