On Thursday, November 21st, medical staff members and employees at McLeod Dillon celebrated the numerous excellent quality and safety scores that were achieved during FY2013. The celebration covered the following improvements:

The Joint Commission Core Measure Scores
McLeod Dillon scored 97.5% for Heart Attack, Pneumonia, Heart Failure and Emergency Department quality measures, also known as core measures, for the past three years according to data collected by The Joint Commission, which provides quality oversight for health care facilities. All total, there are 31 quality indicators measured for these disease categories.

Hospital Safety Score
McLeod Dillon was recognized with an “A” rating by an independent consumer group, The Leapfrog Group, on 26 quality measures and complications.  Only 32% of the hospitals in the nation received an A rating.

Blue Cross Blue Shield
Insurance companies now pay for quality. McLeod Dillon was awarded the highest earning in the small hospital categories for the excellent clinical quality (also known as core measures) and for patient satisfaction.

Quality Improvements in the Emergency Department
Often the front door of the hospital, the McLeod Dillon Emergency Department is continually improving work flow, thus providing patients with excellent care in a timely manner. In FY13:
·  Patients not admitted to the hospital were treated and discharged more quickly, seeing an improvement from an average of 170 minutes to 141 minutes.  
• For those admitted to the hospital, the length of stay in the ED reduced from an average of 282 minutes to 223 minutes.
• Patients who chose to leave before seeing a physician decreased from 2.9% to a 1.17%.
• The percentage of patients who responded “excellent” when asked “how would you rate the overall quality of care you received in the McLeod Dillon Emergency Department” increased the McLeod Dillon national percentile ranking from 50.8% in FY12 to 52.4% in FY13.

Inpatient Patient Satisfaction
(Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS))
McLeod Dillon is in the top 95th Percentile for Nurse Communication, Doctor Communication and Medication Communication.  Overall, McLeod Dillon made a 12.5% improvement for all of the combined HCAHPS questions since FY12.
“McLeod Health continues to be the choice for medical excellence because of the intense focus that is placed on quality and patient safety at each McLeod facility,” said Debbie Locklair, Administrator of McLeod Dillon. “Our patients and community entrust their care to us.  The employees and medical staff members at McLeod Dillon are to be commended for devoting their considerable skills and talents to the selfless service of others.  Being recognized by multiple organizations and by the patients we serve speaks to the level of care provided at our hospital.  Their commitment to caring for the individual patient supports the mission of the McLeod organization.”