Colleton Medical Center receives 2019 Zero Harm Awards

Walterboro, SC – Since 2014, the South Carolina Hospital Association, in partnership with DHEC, has recognized hospitals throughout the state that prevent all hospital-acquired infections of a specific nature over an extended period of time. The data for those awards is independently certified by DHEC in a unique third-party verification process. This collaborative effort is a testament to the spirit of statewide collaboration that has driven so many of our patient safety advances in recent years.

The program has proven tremendously successful. In 2019 alone, 57 South Carolina hospitals won 230 Certified Zero Harm Awards; Colleton Medical Center being named among them.

The Zero Harm Awards showcase the hospitals who have had extended harm-free stretches in surgical site infections in major surgical procedures like knee replacements, hip replacements, colon surgery, and abdominal hysterectomy, or that have gone months without a Central Line-Associated Blood Stream Infection (CLABSI), MRSA or C. diff.

Colleton Medical Center received the award for achieving fifty–four months with zero knee replacement surgical site infections and forty-eight months with zero hip replacement surgical site infections.

Donna Kubik, Director of Surgical Services, said “We take great pride in ensuring that our patients receive the best care and that we are doing our part to prevent hospital-acquired infections.”

She, along with Dr. Larry Conley, and members of Colleton Medical Center's surgical staff were presented the award on March 5, 2020.