NEWBERRY — Newberry County Memorial Hospital has achieved the Healthgrades 2020 Outstanding Patient Experience Award™.
This distinction recognizes Newberry County Memorial Hospital as being among the top five percent of hospitals nationwide for patient experience, according to Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems.
Healthgrades evaluated 3,346 hospitals that submitted at least 100 patient experience surveys to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), covering admissions from April 2018 through March 2019, to identify hospital performance. Of those hospitals evaluated, 424 hospitals outperformed their peers—based on their patients’ responses—to achieve this distinction.
“I am extremely proud of our extraordinary team,” said Bruce Baldwin, chief executive officer. “Their main focus is providing the best care possible. Newberry Hospital has received many awards over the last several years, and receiving this award for five years in a row is especially meaningful as it reflects our mission and dedication of providing exceptional care to our patients.”
Healthgrades evaluated hospital performance by applying a scoring methodology to 10 patient experience measures, using data collected from a 29-question experience survey from the hospital’s own patients. The survey questions focus on patients’ perspectives of their care in the hospital. The topics of these questions ranged from cleanliness and noise levels in patient rooms to physician and nurse communication. The measures also include whether a patient would recommend the hospital to friends or family.
“The 2020 Outstanding Patient Experience Award recognizes the hospitals that are committed to improving the patient experience throughout the entire organization. Patient experience plays a huge role in the perception of the care a patient receives, and it is important that hospitals continue to learn from and evolve their patient experiences. It is also equally important that consumers access this information and do their research when determining where to receive care,” said Brad Bowman, MD, chief medical officer, Healthgrades.
Newberry Hospital has a team made up of staff from across the hospital that meets monthly to discuss HCAHPS scores and discuss opportunities to improve on patient care. The team is always looking for processes and services that will provide the best possible care for our patients. Newberry Hospital also has a patient advisory council made up staff and community members that meet quarterly to discuss feedback from the community and to share information about the hospital with the community.
Also this year, Baldwin announced that during the Quorum Health Resources annual awards dinner, Newberry County Memorial Hospital received an award for the “Best Overall Performance” for a hospital with net revenues under $100 million. This award recognized performance in categories such as growth, fiscal management, quality and patient satisfaction. Over 40 different measures were used to determine the winner of this award, according to Baldwin.
During the presentation, it was recognized that, “NCMH has an engaged board and medical staff that help provide strong governance that challenges, but supports senior leadership. NCMH has a strong, cohesive senior leadership team.”
“During the tough times that small rural hospitals function in today, NCMH has been able to maintain strong overall performance in spite of loss of surgical volumes to a competing ASC, lower reimbursement for services, and increased costs to maintain professionals and medical equipment. The hospital has received numerous awards for quality and patient satisfaction,” QHR stated.
Newberry County Memorial Hospital has been serving their community for over 90 years. QHR has been a part of the family for over 40 years.
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