Beaufort Memorial Hospital executive Pat Foulger was one of seven winners honored this year with a Lewis W. Blackman Patient Safety Champion Award.

Vice president of quality and risk management for the nonprofit hospital, Foulger received the Healthcare Executive or Manager Award for her work spearheading BMH’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Project that decreased MSRA resistance and reduced usage of antibiotics in the hospital by 70 percent.

[caption id="attachment_11303" align="alignleft" width="194"]<a href="http://www.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Pat-Foulger-SCHA-2013-award.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-11303" alt="Beaufort Memorial executive Pat Foulger (left) is presented with the Lewis W. Blackman Patient Safety Champion Award by Blackman’s mother, Helen Haskell." src="http://www.yourislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Pat-Foulger-SCHA-2013-award-194x300.jpg" width="194" height="300" /></a> Beaufort Memorial executive Pat Foulger (left) is presented with the Lewis W. Blackman Patient Safety Champion Award by Blackman’s mother, Helen Haskell.[/caption]

Foulger also created a team that has collaborated successfully with other community health care organizations to help prevent avoidable hospital readmissions. The team’s focus is on improving outcomes and the overall health of uninsured patients by partnering with local businesses and congregations to provide healthy lifestyle education.

She also established orthopedic and stroke care programs and led a safety and quality project that helped increase the hospital staff’s knowledge and understanding of emergency preparedness.

“We are very proud to have in Pat such a skilled and committed patient safety champion on our leadership team,” said Beaufort Memorial President and CEO Rick Toomey. “Her dedication to healthcare quality is evident in our patients’ outcomes and our staff’s delivery of safe, excellent and compassionate care.”

The Lewis Blackman Patient Safety Champion Awards were created in 2008 to recognize individuals who have demonstrated exemplary dedication and leadership in advancing patient safety and health care quality in South Carolina hospitals.

Named in honor of a 15-year-old boy who died in 2000 from a preventable medical complication following elective surgery, the awards program is sponsored by the South Carolina Hospital Association, Health Sciences South Carolina, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Mothers Against Medical Errors and PHT Services, Ltd.

Along with the Healthcare Executive or Manager Award, trophies were awarded in categories that included, Caregiver, Advocacy, Innovation in Research and Care Delivery and Student Champion of Patient Safety.

Vice president of quality and risk at Beaufort Memorial since 1997, Foulger is responsible for a number of ancillary departments, including pharmacy, imaging, respiratory care, inpatient and outpatient rehab, laboratories and all of the hospital’s physician practice offices.

Prior to joining BMH, Foulger served as vice president of quality care at Greater Southeast Community Hospital in Washington, D.C.