Community Memorial Hospital Receives National Quality Award
CMH has received a National Quality Award for Clinical Excellence as one of the top ten hospitals in the United States within the VHA organization in the 250 bed and under category. CMH was ranked fourth out of the top ten hospitals.
VHA is an international organization of hospitals that works with its member hospitals on quality initiatives, purchasing and other related operational issues. Membership in the VHA is by invitation. The VHA organization consists of hospitals of all sizes including small and larger urban teaching hospitals.
The Clinical Excellence Award was based on the Federal value-based purchasing (VBP) methodology in place at the time of the analysis. Hospitals received a single overall hospital performance score based on their clinical score measures as well as their patient satisfaction measures.
Denise Hummer, Vice President for Administration, and Diane Chase, Director of Nursing Services, received the award at a recent VHA meeting in San Diego.
CMH had previously received a VHA Clinical Excellence Award in 2007 for the low rate of surgical complications and the outstanding infection control program.
In addition, CMH has been ranked in the top tier of hospitals in the county for orthopedics with a 5-star ranking five years in a row.
When it comes to achieving outstanding clinical quality scores – size doesn’t necessarily matter. In fact, if you ask David Felton President and CEO of Community Memorial Hospital in rural Hamilton, NY, being smaller and more agile is a benefit, especially in today’s economic climate.
“We’re a small hospital and our numbers are very good,” he explains, “because we focus on what matters most: providing a warm, caring and safe environment for our patients. In this sense, we are big on customer service.”
Felton said his staff is focused on the right things, as their clinical performance score exceeded 85 percent in 2010, decisively beating a national average that was just above 70 percent and earning them a VHA Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence.
“Our high level of quality and patient satisfaction started many ears ago,” explains Felton. “We’ve found success by offering the same level of big city care in a small rural environment, delivered in a culture of quality and caring. We knew if we were going to succeed, we needed to work together.”
He explains that part of working together included gaining buy-in from the medical staff. “Hospitals are known for having high medical staff turnover,” he explains, “but ours is very low. We asked our physicians to buy-in to customer service early on and they did.”
One of CMH’s physicians, Michael S. Jastremski, MD, can attest to that. He is the Director of Emergency Services at CMH and also the hospital’s Vice President of Medical Affairs.
“Great quality starts with good physicians who want patients to do well,” he explains. “Whenever a quality expectation comes up, we look at it, develop a protocol for physicians and nurses to monitor and give feedback.”
He notes that “our processes and protocols are developed by people who are willing to use them, and they are arrived at by consensus. We are a small, collegial group of people who are willing to be convinced by facts, and we are showing how knowledge improves care.”
Collegiality could well be one of the secrets to CMH’s success, as it appears to be pervasive throughout the organization’s culture.
“Our success has a lot to do with how we treat each other,” explains Felton, who has been at the hospital’s helm for more than 30 years and is due to retire at the end of 2011. “Everybody is important when it comes to serving patients. For instance, we get a lot of positive comments about our caring and cleanliness. In this regard, housekeeping is just as important as our medical staff.”
It was the CMH employees, he explains, who came up with what the hospital calls its “Always” program. “Through ‘Always’ we let patients and their families know we ‘always want to meet your needs,’” he says. All employees commit to keeping patients comfortable, safe, informed and cared for with respect and concern.
“Our employees, medical staff and board have all bought into the ‘Always’ program 100 percent,” Felton explains, adding “the ‘Always’ program works because everybody is in tune and onboard.”
As the demands of healthcare reform bear down on the healthcare industry, CMH is embracing the change. “I believe healthcare reform will affect patient care for the better,” says Dr. Jastremski. “The scores are a reflection of an institution keeping up with best practices and following them. The bottom line is that hospitals have to want to give patients the best care possible. The only fear, where healthcare reform is concerned, is in terms of reimbursements. Hospitals will always have to keep evolving to keep up with the requirements.”
David W. Felton, President & CEO
Please note this press release includes excerpts from the May 2011 VHA Alliance Magazine.
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