Parkway Regional Hospital Wins National Top Performer Award

Parkway Regional Hospital is proud to announce that Press Ganey Associates, Inc., has named it a 2011 Summit Award Winner. Press Ganey currently partners with more than 10,000 health care facilities----including 50% of all US hospitals----to measure and improve quality care.

The Summit Award recognizes top-performing facilities that sustain the highest level of core measures performance for three consecutive years. The Press Ganey Summit Award is the health care performance improvement industry's most coveted symbol of achievement bestowed annually, and Parkway Regional Hospital is one of 11 organizations to achieve the award based on core measures.

Robert Draughon, Press Ganey's CEO noted, "We are proud to partner with Parkway Regional Hospital. Their innovative approach to improving clinical processes and outcomes helps to advance the quality of health care in Fulton."

According to Rob Calhoun, CEO of Parkway Regional Hospital, the award represents important recognition within the industry for its efforts. "Our primary focus at Parkway Regional Hospital is to provide quality care, and it is gratifying to see that our efforts have resulted in the level of core measures performance that merits this kind of recognition," said Calhoun.

Parkway Regional Hospital obtained the Summit Award by placing elevated emphasis on core measures. A core measures committee was formed, which involved nursing, pharmacy, radiology, lab, health information management, quality, case management, respiratory, and rural health clinics, to allow opportunities to educate and address concerns. This, coupled with buy-in from the medical staff and administration, resulted in the establishment of best-practice order sets and protocols for each clinician to follow. In return, the hospital's average length of stay for heart failure patients decreased and readmission rates for heart failure patients decreased.