WAYNE – Providence Medical Center was notified in late November of 2019 that they qualified for a Women’s Choice Award.
According to a release from PMC on January 3, the non-profit, 21 bed Critical Access hospital was recently named one of ‘America’s Best Hospitals’ for emergency care by the Women’s Choice Award.
PMC has been serving healthcare needs in the area since 1975 and employs over 200 individuals and provides state-of-the-art healthcare to more than 13,500 residents in their service area consisting of Wayne, Dixon, Cedar, Cuming, Stanton and Thurston counties.
CEO Jim Frank at Providence Medical Center said as a hospital they’re required to report information to CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services).
“So, this organization looked at that data for our ER scores and compiled it; ran it through their calculation,” said Frank. “And determined that we were in the top 2% in the country for our patient satisfaction scores.”
The category was selected from 4,191 U.S. hospitals offering emergency care services. PMC is also one of 336 award recipients representing the hospitals that have met the highest standards for emergency care in the U.S. by the Women’s Choice Award.
The Women’s Choice Award is a trusted referral source, empowering women to make smart healthcare choices by identifying the country’s best healthcare institutions based on robust criteria that consider female patient satisfaction and clinical excellence.
Diane Meyer (APRN) is a nurse practitioner in the PMC emergency department. She added it is a really great achievement.
“It’s hard when you work in the emergency department because we’re seeing people at their worst,” Meyer added. “So, it can be frustrating on the patient’s part and then just making sure that people trust us, feel like they’re getting the healthcare that they need and the fact that they actually like it; we got voted for it was really exciting.”
PMC also offers a five-bed emergency department with two resuscitation bays where there is always a nurse and provider in the building.
The award recognizes excellence in emergency care based on several processes of care measures focused on time patients spent in the emergency department, including time to admission, time from admission to room and door to diagnosis.
Criteria for selecting Providence Medical Center as one of America’s best also included the average time before outpatients with chest pain or a possible heart attack received an ECG and the average time patients with broken bones had to wait before getting pain medication.
Frank mentioned once you get a recognition like this you want to keep it.
“So, we continually focus on our patient satisfaction scores,” Frank mentioned. “Looking at surveys, seeing if there is a way to improve our processes so people want to chose to have their care here. That’s really what it’s all about is providing a quality service that people want to use.”
Awarded hospitals represent those with emergency departments with average measure times in the highest 25th to 50th percentile in the country.
For more information, visit https://www.womenschoiceaward.com/best-hospitals/.