Briefs
Transplant surgeon
named AHN leader
Ngoc Thai, M.D., Ph.D., a nationally recognized transplant surgeon and director of the Center for Abdominal Transplantation at Allegheny General Hospital, has been named chairman of the Department of Surgery for Allegheny Health Network (AHN).
Thai will oversee surgical services provided at AHN’s eight hospitals and 22 outpatient centers. Thai will be responsible for a wide range of clinical and operational functions, executing the department’s strategic vision for its employed physicians, residents, fellows and physician extenders. He’ll also work to further expand AHN’s surgical program by building relationships with independent surgery groups throughout the region.
Thai joined AGH in 2007 and established AHN’s liver transplant program, played a key role in bringing an organ transplant clinic to Saint Vincent Hospital in Erie and helped pioneer the use of Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy to treat patients with inoperable liver cancer.
MVH earns
high marks
For the third consecutive time, Monongahela Valley Hospital (MVH) has been awarded an “A” for its efforts in protecting patients from harm and meeting the highest safety standards from The Leapfrog Group, a Washington, D.C.-based organization aiming to improve health care quality and safety for consumers and purchasers.
The Leapfrog Group released the new Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades, assigning an A, B, C, D or F grade to hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harms among patients in their care.
To see MVH’s full grade details or to access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit www.hospitalsafetygrade.org.
The hospital also recently received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines-AFIB Silver Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures for the management of patients with atrial fibrillation.
The guidelines were developed to assist health care professionals to provide the most up-to-date, research-based guidelines for patients with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat that can lead to stroke and other complications.
MVH earned the award for meeting specific quality achievement measures at a set level for a designated period. These measures include providing appropriate medications and aggressive risk reduction therapies to prevent stroke, stabilize the heart rate and rhythm and treat additional heart disease.