American Hospital Association honors two federal health care leaders

The American Hospital Association (AHA) presented two federal hospital leaders with awards recognizing their outstanding service to the health care field. These awards recognize uniformed and non-uniformed federal health care leaders who have distinguished themselves through singularly significant or innovative achievements and leadership that have contributed substantially to the mission of the federal health system. The presentation took place at the recent AHA/Health Forum Leadership Summit in San Diego.

“We are pleased to honor Rear Admiral Terry J. Moulton and Major Rett J. Reber. They both serve as great teachers, leading by example and sharing what they’ve learned to help improve patient care wherever it is delivered,” said Rick Pollack, AHA president and CEO. “Our federal hospitals are an amazing national resource, as are the people they care for. The exceptional women and men staffing these facilities exemplify dedication to patient care and service to our country.”

2015 Award for Excellence – Rear Admiral (RADM) Terry J. Moulton, Deputy Surgeon General, U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Falls Church, Va.

RADM Moulton developed a Regional Key Performance Metrics Dashboard that identified facilities for priority performance measures facilitating the sharing of best practices to drive improvements across Navy Medicine East. He also led the Military Health System by fielding mobile applications that significantly improved the patient experience at 17 military treatment facilities more than two years ahead of the Defense Health Agency's timeline, resulting in a 44 percent increase in utilization of secure messaging and reducing private sector emergency department visits by 66 percent. These efforts saved taxpayers more than $15.8 million while enhancing patient satisfaction.

2015 Special Achievement Award – Major Rett J. Reber, United States Air Force 15 Medical Group, Physical Therapy (PT) Element Chief, Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam, Hawaii

Since arriving in Oahu in July 2014, Maj. Reber has transformed the Hickam PT clinics and contributed to military PT services island-wide. He led a facility remodel with a patient safety focus that contributed to the clinic winning the 2014 Best Clinic Patient Safety Program award. In addition, he increased productivity 84 percent in FY 2015 resulting in a No. 1 rating of 66 Air Force PT Clinics; collaborated on central PT referral process improvements to streamline referrals from 5 clinics; and improved access to care by instituting innovative algorithms for patients with acute low back pain to be seen expediently. These efforts resulted in exceeding the 90th percentile in Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) scores. HEDIS is a tool used by health plans to measure performance on important dimensions of care and service.

About the AHA

The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which include nearly 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA website at www.aha.org.