Veterans Memorial Hospital wins National Top Performer Award for second consecutive year

Veterans Memorial Hospital (VMH) in Waukon has been named a Summit Award Winner for the second consecutive year by Press Ganey Associates, Inc. The Summit Award recognizes Veterans Memorial Hospital for achieving and sustaining exceptional emergency room patient satisfaction results. VMH has ranked in the top five percent of hospitals nationwide for each consecutive quarter during the last four years.
Press Ganey currently partners with more than 10,000 health care facilities - including 50% of U.S. hospitals - to measure and improve the quality of their care. The company’s databases are the largest in the industry, and allow facilities nationwide to benchmark their results against peer organizations.
The Summit Award recognizes top performing facilities that sustain the highest level of customer satisfaction for three or more consecutive years. Veterans Memorial Hospital is one of 20 facilities nationally to receive this honor for their Emergency patient care in 2010 and one of only seven hospitals in the state of Iowa.
Robert Draughon, Press Ganey’s CEO, noted, “We are proud to partner with Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon. Veterans Memorial Hospital’s innovative approach to patient satisfaction helps to advance the quality of health care in the Allamakee and northern Clayton County communities.”
In 2007, VMH began measuring the emergency room patient experience using Press Ganey. When initial results showed VMH in the 96th percentile overall, the challenge of sustaining excellent scores was realized. Consistent, effective and caring communication with patients and their families has been one of the main objectives followed by the hospital staff over the last three years, with a focus on building loyalty among patients.
“Veterans Memorial Hospital is very honored to receive this Summit Award for the second year in a row,” states Mike Myers, Veterans Memorial Hospital Administrator. “It is a validation from the people we serve that we are continuing to achieve our goal of friendly, personalized care right here at home. The people who are a part of this excellent team do not do this for the recognition, but they all do an outstanding job of making each visit to our facility a 'Wow' experience.”
VMH not only measures patient satisfaction in the emergency room area, but all inpatients staying at the hospital, all maternity services patients and home health patients are surveyed through Press Ganey as well. VMH keeps the results and goals of all patient survey results at the forefront of VMH culture. Press Ganey results and comments are compiled monthly and shared with physicians and all staff through a “no secrets” approach.
“What makes this facility so deserving of this recognition is not the equipment or technology available, but the caring and compassion that everyone demonstrates to those who walk through our doors,” adds Myers. “We challenge ourselves to learn from each encounter, and do even better the next time. As it has been said here so many times, you can go anywhere to get treated, but you come to VMH to get cared for.”