Awards and Accreditations
Mid-Columbia Medical Center has been recognized for its outstanding commitment to performance excellence and has received the Oregon Quality Award, which is based on the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The award is given to industry leaders who have achieved outstanding performance evaluations in leadership, strategic planning, customer and market focus, information and analysis, human resources, process management and organizational outcomes.
Mid-Columbia Medical Center was named as one of seven Oregon companies to demonstrate outstanding commitment to families and community. The Families in Good Company Award is a reflection of Mid-Columbia's dedication to helping employees manage work and family demands, with such benefits as flexible work schedules, job sharing, telecommuting and compressed work weeks, on-site child care and wellness programs.
Modern Maturity magazine named Mid-Columbia Medical Center as one of 15 U.S. Hospitals with Heart. The honor is presented to hospitals whose employees, physicians and volunteers demonstrate the following Hospitals with Heart principles: treat everyone with dignity; share unbiased information with patients and their families; strengthen patient's sense of control; and collaborate with patients, families and the broader community in deciding how the hospital looks and functions.
Mid-Columbia Medical Center has been accredited by the Joint Commission, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting quality healthcare services. This voluntary accreditation signifies that the hospital's efforts to provide highest-quality healthcare have received professional and national recognition through stringent evaluation and consultation from the Joint Commission.
For nearly 15 years, Mid-Columbia Medical Center has been affiliated with the Planetree Alliance, a group of innovative hospitals and healthcare institutions who are dedicated to implementing innovative programs to personalize, humanize and demystify the healthcare experience for patients and their families. Mid-Columbia was the first Alliance affiliate to adopt and embrace, hospital-wide,
Planetree's philosophy of patient-centered care. Considered an exemplary model of Planetree, Mid-Columbia is one of the few affiliates to have incorporated all nine components of the Planetree vision into its facility.
In 2007 Mid-Columbia Medical Center was formally recognized by Planetree, Inc. as one of five "
Designated Planetree Patient-Centered Hospitals" in the nation. It is the only Oregon hospital to have met the stringent criteria developed by Planetree to distinguish those hospitals nationwide doing the most advanced work in patient-centered care.
As part of Mid-Columbia Medical Center's ongoing commitment to patient health and safety, we have been accredited by the Joint Commission.
Joint Commission accreditation involves evaluating a health care organization's performance in areas that most affect patient health and safety. These areas are defined in Joint Commission standards. By achieving accreditation, a health care organization makes a commitment to follow Joint Commission standards, which provide the framework for safe, quality care.
Should you have a concern about patient care and/or safety, you are encouraged to contact the hospital Performance and Quality office at (541) 296-7380. If your concerns are not resolved at this level, you may contact the Joint Commission directly using one of the means below:
E-Mail:
complaint@jointcommission.org
Fax: Office of Quality Monitoring, (630) 792-5636
Mail: Office of Quality Monitoring
The Joint Commission
One Renaissance Boulevard
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
At Mid-Columbia Medical Center our commitment is to meet or exceed expectations and create an exceptional experience for the patient and their family that results in industry leading levels of patient satisfaction. To monitor achievement of this goal, MCMC measures patient satisfaction using various techniques.
To measure the satisfaction of patients cared for as inpatients, MCMC contracts with an independent, private market research company to conduct a telephone survey of 100 discharged patients each month. In addition to the questions included in the survey the callers capture narrative comments from patients in response to open ended questions. The results, including the narrative comments, are delivered to the hospital's executive staff and shared with the management team for investigation and corrective action if necessary.
Measuring Hospital Quality
Over the past few years the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have been working toward developing a standardized instrument to evaluate hospital quality as part of their Hospital Quality Initiative (HQI). The instrument that is now being used is known as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, or HCAHPS.
The intent of the HCAHPS, is to introduce a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring and publicly reporting patients' perspectives of hospital care. While many hospitals collect information on patient satisfaction, until the HCAHPS initiative there has been no national standard for collecting or publicly reporting information that would allow valid comparisons to be made across hospitals.
Three broad goals have shaped HCAHPS:
1. The survey is designed to produce data on patients' perspectives of care that allow objective and meaningful comparison of hospitals on topics that are important to consumers.
2. Public reporting of the survey results is designed to create incentives for hospitals to improve quality of care.
3. Public reporting will serve to enhance public accountability in health care by increasing the transparency of the quality of hospital care provided.
With these goals in mind, the HCAHPS project has taken substantial steps to assure that the survey will be credible, useful, and practical.
The HCAHPS has only been in active use since October 2006 and participation is voluntary. In an effort to share information about hospital quality Mid-Columbia Medical Center has chosen to be among some of the first hospitals to participate and make public the results of this survey.
For more information on the CMS Hospital Quality Initiative or HCAHPS please visit the following websites.
www.cms.hhs.gov/HospitalQualityInits
www.hcahpsonline.org
Links to state and national quality initiatives
Medical care in the U.S. is monitored by government agencies and special interest groups. These groups evaluate and report on the quality of care provided by hospitals and other health care providers. A few prominent agencies and groups are listed below.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, The federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) supports research to improve healthcare quality. The AHRQ consumer website contains patient education on many healthcare topics.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement - 5 Million Lives Campaign, Mid-Columbia Medical Center is a participant in this national effort to reduce hospital deaths by 5 million lives. As of June 2006, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement estimates that over 122,300 lives had been saved through this initiative. Due to the success of the initial campaign, in December 2006 the goal was raised to 5 million lives by December 2008. The project is ongoing.
Oregon Association of Hospitals and Healthcare Systems, Founded in 1934, the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems (OAHHS) is a statewide, nonprofit trade association that works closely with local and national government leaders, business and citizen coalitions, and other professional health care organizations to enhance and promote community health.
Acumentra Health, This nonprofit organization is dedicated to improving the quality and effectiveness of healthcare. They collaborate with practitioners, providers, public agencies, and private organizations on a wide range of healthcare improvement projects and programs.
U.S. Health and Human Services - Hospital Compare Tool,This easy-to-use online tool allows consumers to compare hospital performance with national performance in the areas of heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia care, and in the prevention of surgical infections.
The Joint Commission, The Joint Commission is the nation's largest not-for-profit healthcare regulating organization. The Joint Commission evaluates the quality and safety of care for more than 15,000 health care organizations.
American Medical Association, Board-certified physicians have been trained in specialized areas of medicine. For information on board certification for a specific physician visit the AMA website.
We hope you find the information provided in these websites helpful, but please remember that Mid-Columbia Medical Center does not control or endorse the information presented on these websites, nor do these sites endorse the information found on MCMC.net.