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In the News
Valley Baptist Top Performer in Nation for Rehab Care;
Wins Awards for Emergency Care, Heart Care
HARLINGEN, July 19, 2006 – Valley Baptist Medical
Center-Harlingen has received national awards for rehabilitation care,
heart catheterization and emergency care, while
VBMC-Brownsville has received a
nation-wide award for outpatient care by its Cardiac Catheterization
Laboratory.
VBMC-Harlingen’s Inpatient Rehabilitation Unit received an Overall
Top Performer and a 5-Star Customer Service Award from Professional
Research Consultants (PRC), a national healthcare marketing research
company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. The crystal Overall Top
Performer is PRC’s highest honor, given only to those health care
facilities which score in the 100% percentile for quality of care in
PRC’s national client database.
The 5-Star award is given annually to healthcare facilities that
score in the top 10 percent nationally for the prior calendar year. The
award is figured on the percentage of patients who rated the facility as
“excellent” for overall quality of care in 2005.
VBMC-Harlingen’s
Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory received a Top Performer Award
for “Most Involved Staff Member’s Understanding and Caring,” along with
a 4-Star Patient Perception Award. The
Emergency Dept. at VBMC-Harlingen once again received awards, which
included a 4-Star Patient Perception Award for overall quality of care
and a 4-Star Medical Staff Perception Award.
Meanwhile, VBMC-Brownsville’s
Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory received a 4-Star Patient Perception
award for overall quality of outpatient care. The 4-star designation
is given to healthcare facilities which score in the top 25 percent
nationally.
“We are proud to honor Valley Baptist Medical Center as they have
worked hard to make their facility an excellent place for their
patients,” said Joe M. Inguanzo, Ph.D., President and CEO of PRC. “We
commend them for their commitment to provide first-rate healthcare for
their community.”
James G. Springfield, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer of
Valley Baptist Health System, noted that the awards were the result of
concerted team efforts to continuously maximize the quality of care for
all patients at Valley Baptist. “There is no greater priority for our
health system than continuous improvement so that we can provide the
best possible outcomes for each of our patients,” Mr. Springfield added.
Valley Baptist was one of the first 10 hospitals in the country to
institute the Six Sigma
quality improvement program in order to maximize performance and
patient satisfaction throughout the health system. Six Sigma is a
comprehensive, flexible program for achieving, sustaining and maximizing
success in business. Six Sigma starts by determining the expectations of
patients and other customers of the hospital and then applies facts,
data and statistical analysis to manage, improve and re-invent business
processes.
PRC’s awards are based on patient satisfaction research which is
conducted to obtain the opinions of patients at Valley Baptist and at
hundreds of other hospitals across the country. Patients are contacted
by telephone for a confidential interview to assess their perceptions of
patient care. The research findings are then presented to the hospital
to use in continuous improvement and enhancement of patient
satisfaction.
The awards were presented to Valley Baptist at the 2006 National
Excellence in Healthcare Awards dinner held in June, 2006 in Omaha,
Nebraska. Hospital leaders from across the United States gathered to
participate in the 2006 PRC Client Education Conference.
Professional Research Consultants is in its 26th year of providing
market research for hospitals across the United States.
For more information on the Six Sigma quality improvement program at
Valley Baptist, please click here.
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