A multidisciplinary team from Bergen New Bridge Medical Center has won an international UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Team of Distinction Award for transforming cervical cancer screenings. The team members being honored include Ilham Atir, Laboratory Director; Katie Richardson, Senior Vice President of Operations; Raquel Ortiz, Vice President of Ambulatory Care; Diane Darmody, Chief Nursing Officer; and Dr. Charlie Celestine, Gynecology.
This integrated clinical care team recognized the need to evolve the Medical Center’s cervical cancer screening program to better serve women in Northern New Jersey and the surrounding area. Traditional HPV testing, while effective, often left patients and clinicians without conclusive answers, resulting in significant patient anxiety and potentially unnecessary, stressful follow-up procedures.
“This collaborative effort to innovate an essential screening test for women is a game changer for the Medical Center, and most importantly, our patients,” said Deborah Visconi, President & CEO, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. “We are dedicated to being a beacon of health, hope, and healing, and now, by transforming our cervical cancer screening process, we are expanding access to this essential women’s health service while providing greater patient satisfaction and improving health and wellness outcomes.”
To innovate the screening process, a high-risk extended HPV genotype assay was integrated into standard practice, enabling identification of 14 high-risk HPV types. Additionally, cervical cancer screening often requires a pap smear, which patients find uncomfortable, invasive, and inconvenient, so patient self-collection was introduced to make it more convenient and comfortable for patients.
Screening and follow-up visits have increased by 79.3%, and patient satisfaction with women’s health visits has increased by 14%. Additionally, there has been a 13% increase in appointments for women’s health services and a 21% reduction in ‘no-show’ follow-up visits. Strategic implementation of HPV Extended Genotype enables the rapid identification of patients with the highest-risk types and fast-tracks them for necessary, immediate follow-up. Patients with lower-risk types are protected from unnecessary invasive scans, resulting in $3.7 million in savings at the Medical Center between 2024 and 2025.
UNIVANTS stands for Unity and Avant-Garde. It was created by Abbott, along with other leading healthcare organizations worldwide, with a shared vision to celebrate and inspire healthcare excellence.
“The award is a celebration of teams working across disciplines to address unmet needs and achieve measurably better outcomes,” the organization said in a video statement.
About Bergen New Bridge Medical Center
Bergen New Bridge Medical Center (BNBMC), a clinical affiliate of Rutgers, is a 1,070-bed hospital located at 230 East Ridgewood Avenue in Paramus, NJ. The Medical Center is both the largest hospital and licensed nursing home in NJ and the fourth largest, publicly owned hospital in the nation.
Bergen New Bridge, a not-for-profit safety net facility, provides high-quality comprehensive services, including acute and ambulatory care, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, long-term care, 24/7 emergency department, surgical suites, physical rehabilitation, pharmacy, laboratory, and radiologic services (including digital mammography). The Medical Center also has satellite offices in Bergenfield, Englewood, and Paterson. Primary care and other health and wellness services are available at the hospital’s CareRite Now centers located in select Inserra Supermarkets in Bergen County.
Bergen New Bridge is in-network with all major New Jersey commercial insurance plans, covering 99.91% of NJ residents, and is a Veterans Community Care Provider. It is also a Leader in LGBTQ Healthcare Equality in the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Healthcare Equality Index (HEI). Learn more at www.newbridgehealth.org.