News

Bradley Hospital Named a Top Performing Hospital by The Joint Commission

The only psychiatric hospital in New England to earn this designation

Bradley Hospital, the nation’s first psychiatric hospital focusing exclusively on children and adolescents, has earned the distinction of ‘Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for 2011’ by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health organizations in the U.S. Bradley Hospital is the only hospital in Rhode Island and the only psychiatric hospital in New England to receive this designation.

“This is an important recognition for Bradley Hospital, demonstrating and reinforcing our commitment to consistently provide the best care for the children and families we serve,” said Daniel J. Wall, Bradley Hospital president and CEO. “As the nation’s first psychiatric hospital for children and adolescents we have a unique responsibility to show that Bradley delivers exemplary care to patients and their families. This distinction underscores that our hard work and focus on quality are paying off.”

Bradley Hospital, which is also a teaching hospital for the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, was one of just 620 hospitals in the U.S. to be recognized as a Top Performer. It was singled out for exemplary performance in using evidence-based clinical processes that are shown to improve care for certain medical conditions. Specifically, the hospital was recognized in the inpatient psychiatric services category.

The ratings given are based on an aggregation of accountability measure data reported to the Joint Commission during the 2011 calendar year. The list of Top Performers increased by 50 percent from its debut last year and represents 18 percent of accredited hospitals reporting data.

Each of the hospitals that were named as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures met two 95 percent (95/95) performance thresholds on 2011 accountability measure data. First, each hospital achieved performance of 95 percent or above on a single, composite score that includes all the accountability measures for which it reports data to The Joint Commission, including measures that had fewer than 30 eligible cases or patients.

Each hospital also met or exceeded 95 percent performance on every accountability measure for which it reports data to The Joint Commission, excluding any measures with fewer than 30 eligible cases or patients. A 95 percent score means a hospital provided an evidence-based practice 95 times out of 100 opportunities to provide the practice. Each accountability measure represents an evidence-based practice.

 

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Bradley Hospital Has Opened a New Children’s Partial Hospital Program

This specialized program offers children with severe psychiatric difficulties comprehensive care while living in the comfort of home

Bradley Hospital recently launched the latest in its cadre of innovative programs – the Children’s Partial Hospital Program (CPHP). This specialized day program provides comprehensive evaluation and intensive treatment for children ages seven through 12, and their families who are experiencing severely disruptive behavior that limits the family’s ability to function.

According to program director Anne Walters, Ph.D., the primary goal of the program is to help children safely live at home while offering them and their families the opportunity to work on emotional, social, and behavioral difficulties that occur at home and in the community.

“For children who are having severe emotional or behavioral difficulties, it can be difficult for them to compound that with staying away from home to receive in-patient treatment,” said Walters. “This program allows children to receive comprehensive care during the day, five days per week, while still allowing them to be at home with their families each night and on weekends, putting the tools they have learned in the program each day to use at home interacting with their families.”

Walters and her team of psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, special education teachers and milieu therapists worked together to create a unique, evidence based program that will fill a critical need in the community.

The CPHP operates Monday through Friday during the hours of a typical school day, so children are dropped off in the morning and picked up in the afternoon by a parent, just as would happen at school. The program focuses on family-centered treatment by encouraging parent participation in each child’s evaluation and treatment, as well as requiring twice-weekly family therapy sessions, and offering a multi-family group as well.

The Children’s Partial Hospital Program joins two other partial hospital programs already offered by Bradley Hospital, a pediatric program for children up to age six and an adolescent program for 13 to 18-year-olds.

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Van Beuren grants awarded to improve quality of life for local residents

Bradley Hospital and Newport Hospital receive grants for new children’s mental health program and expanded interventional radiology services

Bradley Hospital and Newport Hospital have received grants totaling $250,000 from the Van Beuren Charitable Foundation, a Rhode Island-based grant-making organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the unique characteristics of Newport County and improving the quality of life for its residents.

The $150,000 awarded to Bradley Hospital will be used to enhance outpatient child mental health services in Newport County through a joint program of Bradley Hospital and Newport Hospital. The $100,000 received by Newport Hospital will support the hospital’s interventional radiology program.

As part of the award to Bradley Hospital, the grant will allow the hospital to bring a child psychiatrist, psychologist and assorted outpatient services to Newport Hospital this fall as an extension of Bradley Hospital. Newport Hospital recognized a greater need for pediatric mental health care in the local community and created this partnership with Bradley Hospital.

The goal of the partnership is to eventually offer a full range of outpatient programs for children in Newport Country, so that they can receive the treatment they need close to home and possibly avoid the need for hospitalization.

Through its $100,000 grant, Newport Hospital will expand interventional radiology services, with the goal of providing minimally invasive procedures through image-guided technology for treatment of blood clots, blocked vessels, tumors, and other problems.

This expansion constitutes a nearly $2 million project. The Van Beuren grant actually adds $150,000 to the program fundraising, because it comes during a timeframe that allows it to be counted as part of a challenge grant from the Alletta Morris McBean Charitable Trust. That challenge period ends on June 30, and this grant brings the amount raised to within $50,000 of the challenge.

Together, the Bradley Hospital and Newport Hospital grants from the Van Beuren Charitable Foundation create services in Newport County that will benefit countless children and adults who live locally.

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Bradley Hospital researcher links gene to shorter sleep, depression

Newly released findings from Bradley Hospital published in the journal SLEEP have found that a specific gene occurs more frequently in young people who experience depression symptoms when they don’t get enough sleep. The study, titled “Short Sleep as an Environmental Exposure: A Preliminary Study Associating 5-HTTLPR Genotype to Self-Reported Sleep Duration and Depressed Mood in First-Year University Students,” was led by Mary A. Carskadon, Ph.D., director of chronobiology and sleep research at Bradley Hospital.

The study examined first-year college students and found that those who slept for fewer than seven hours a night - based on daily reports for eight weeks - and also showed symptoms of depressed mood on a standard measure were significantly more likely to carry a specific genotype associated with low serotonin transporter production. Serotonin plays a role in mood regulation.

These findings indicate that the risk for mood problems when lacking in sleep is greater in some people than others. While physicians have long advocated that adequate sleep is important for everyone and affects many health-related outcomes, in the case of depressed mood symptoms specifically, this research discovered that individual differences in the serotonin system may affect how sleep and mood interact.

“The way we sleep or choose to sleep provides a behavioral ‘environment’ that can impact our health,” said Carskadon. “Just as tobacco smoking or alcohol consumption interact with genetics, so too do our sleep patterns. Getting too little sleep can set you up for mood problems that may lead to serious mental health problems. In essence, sleep matters.”

In the future, these findings may help physicians to more effectively treat people who are depressed or to prevent depression altogether by helping patients to achieve better sleep.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health under award number 5R01MH079179. Direct financial and infrastructure support for this project was received through the Lifespan Office of Research Administration.

The principal affiliation of Carskadon is Bradley Hospital (a member hospital of the Lifespan health system in Rhode Island). She is also a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.