Valley Baptist Emergency Department Receives 3 National Awards for Quality of Care

HARLINGEN, June 21, 2004 – The Emergency Department at Valley Baptist Medical Center has received three national awards for overall quality of care and turn-around time in treating emergency room patients. The awards include “Top Performer” in the nation for the overall quality of care provided by the doctors in Valley Baptist’s Emergency Room.

In addition to the Emergency Dept., Valley Baptist’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit also won a “5 Star Customer Service Award,” which is presented only to those hospitals that rank in the top 10 percent in the nation. The awards were presented to VBMC by Professional Research Consultants (PRC), an independent customer and marketing research firm for the health care industry based in Omaha, Nebraska.

“Valley Baptist Health System is among a very elite group of hospitals and health care providers nationwide who put customer service first,” said Joe M. Inguanzo, PH.D., President and CEO of PRC.

Valley Baptist’s awards, which were presented at a recent national conference in Orlando, Florida, include the following:

• 2004 PRC Top Performer Award for Emergency Department Doctors’ Overall Quality of Care
• 2004 PRC 5-Star Customer Service Award for Emergency Department Overall Quality of Care
• 2004 PRC Platinum Achievement Award for “Six Sigma Initiative for Emergency Department Turn-Around Time”
• 2004 PRC 5-Star Customer Service Award for Inpatient Rehabilitation Overall Quality of Care

The “Top Performer” award means that Valley Baptist’s Emergency Dept. physicians scored at the 100th percentile nationally for select criteria which is based on telephone surveys of patients who were treated in emergency rooms.

The firm conducted its research by contacting a random sample of VBMC patients by telephone on a weekly basis. The patients were asked to assess their level of satisfaction shortly after their hospital experience. The rankings were based on the percentage of patients who ranked their hospital as “Excellent” in overall quality of care in 2003, compared to a database of healthcare facilities nationwide.

Of 220 hospitals and health facilities surveyed nationwide, VBMC was one of only 22 to receive the 5-Star award for emergency care. VBMC’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit was one of only seven facilities in the nation to receive the 5-star award, out of 47 inpatient rehabilitation units which were surveyed nationally.

The 5-star awards mean Valley Baptist’s Emergency Dept. and Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit scored above the 90th percentile nationally.

The Platinum Achievement Award -- which is the highest award possible among PRC’s achievement awards -- recognizes Valley Baptist’s success in dramatically improving the turn-around time for patients to be seen by a doctor when they come to the Emergency Dept.

Using a process improvement program called Six Sigma, Valley Baptist was able to reduce waiting time and improve the turn-around by an average time of 53 minutes for acute care patients in the Emergency Dept. For urgent care patients, average turn-around time was improved by more than an hour (67 minutes) over a one-year period. For those with minor injuries, turn-around time was improved by nearly half an hour (28 minutes) in the “Fast Track” section of VBMC’s Emergency Dept.

Valley Baptist is one of the first health care facilities in Texas to use the Six Sigma method, which was pioneered in high-tech companies such as General Electric and Motorola. Valley Baptist, under the leadership of its President and CEO James Springfield, has made Six Sigma improvement one of its top corporate initiatives in order to maximize performance and patient satisfaction throughout the hospital and health system.

Michael Mohun, M.D., Medical Director for the VBMC Emergency Dept. credited the Six Sigma effort and teamwork as “enablers” that helped unify the hospital’s resources, which made it easier for the Emergency Dept. to prioritize and meet its goals of seeing patients quickly and providing the best care possible.

“I think it’s a great example of how we created a team that works together between the hospital administration, the physicians, and the nursing staff,” Dr. Mohun said. “As always, our patients are our primary concern. These awards are just a reflection of the improvements and the excellence in care that we provide.”

Sherry Russo, RN, Emergency Dept. Nursing Director, agreed that teamwork is what makes the difference at VBMC. “What makes me most proud of this award is that it was the result of teamwork between all the physicians and the entire nursing team,” Ms. Russo said. “Everyone has been doing their best to get patients through the Emergency Dept. and treated with the best possible care. It has been a general, very concerted effort.”

On VBMC’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit, Dorothy Nesmith, M.D., serves as Physiatrist (a physician who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation). Collen Queen, PT, MBA, CHE, serves as Administrative Director, while San Juanita Cespedes, RN, is a Care Coordinator who has served as Nurse Manager. On the Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit, physicians, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, and other health professionals care for patients who require intensive rehabilitation following accidents, head injuries, amputation, heart surgery, joint replacement surgery, stroke, arthritis, etc.

“Improving the quality of service and care to our patients is what we strive to do on a daily basis,” Mr. Queen said. “This award is a nice recognition of our efforts.”