COVINGTON – St. Tammany Quality Network has presented its Medical Director’s Award for the fourth quarter of 2024 to key members of its Joint Camp team. This includes Dr. John d’Hemecourt; Dr. Roch Hontas; Sarah Delery, RN; Bert Lindsey, DPT; Toni Mitchell, RN; and Dawn Fournier, RN.
“This is an incredible group of dedicated individuals who focus on patient safety and improved outcomes for patients scheduled for elective hip or knee replacement surgery,” said Dr. Michael K. Hill, medical director of St. Tammany Quality Network. “Over the past eight years, Joint Camp was the main driver for the success of the CMS-mandated Comprehensive Joint Replacement program. The success of this program cannot be overstated.”
Delery and Mitchell are orthopedic nurse navigators, working at Joint Camp to help assess and optimize patients prior to their surgery. Delery has additionally been instrumental in developing and using the patient assessment tool that screens for potential patient risk factors such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease, as well as the state of the home environment.
Lindsey, the director of Inpatient Rehab Services at St. Tammany Health System, assists in assuring that patients meet their maximum rehab potential before and after surgery.
As the STQN clinical quality coordinator, Fournier oversees the Comprehensive Joint Replacement program. She analyzes the program’s outcome and quality data to detect potential process changes that can improve patient recovery times and reduce unnecessary readmissions.
Dr. d’Hemecourt is an anesthesiologist who also serves as vice chief of staff at St. Tammany Health System. He is strongly committed to quality outcomes and has contributed to helping mitigate medical conditions that might affect them.
Dr. Hontas, an orthopedist at St. Tammany Health System, practices at STHS’s Bone and Joint Clinic. He participates in the St. Tammany Quality Network Performance Management Committee and, since 2016, has led the Comprehensive Joint Replacement program at the health system.
All patients scheduled for elective joint replacement must attend the multidisciplinary Joint Camp, which helps them better understand what joint replacement is and what they must do to help assure the best result. One of the major successes of this program is that most patients now go home the same day of surgery.
St. Tammany Quality Network continuously strives to define and improve the healthcare needs of our community. Promoting wellness is a key component of this quest.
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About St. Tammany Quality Network
St. Tammany Quality Network is a physician-led organization that demonstrates a commitment to quality and outcomes by creating a medical community aligned around quality initiatives and payer engagement; using a common information technology platform to capture disease-specific data to assist in proactive patient care; and collaborate on patient-centric initiatives that enhance the quality and improve efficiency of health care delivery.