Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital was honored for successfully demonstrating high performance on several national quality initiatives. During the annual conference held by the Montana Hospital Association (MHA) in Billings, Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital received a Hospital Quality Award from Mountain-Pacific Quality Health, the Medicare Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization for Montana.
“The application process for these awards is extensive,” said Mountain-Pacific’s Montana Director Christy Fuller. “Not only do these hospitals have to meet the criteria, but they have to assemble the documentation and data to demonstrate their high performance. Through both their commitment to providing quality care to their patients and their ability to demonstrate they’re providing that high-quality care, they’ve certainly earned this recognition.”
Board Chair Lois Hedg-peth called it “a particularly meaningful award. Lots of hospitals apply for it.” She said it was a lot of work to gather the information and statistics required.
Marcus Daly met several criteria to be considered for the award, including working on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Core Elements of outpatient antibiotic stewardship and taking steps to improve care transitions, medication safety, adult immunization rates and patient and family engagement and satisfaction. According to Director of Nursing Kathy Padilla the hospital won quality awards in three categories: anti-michrobial stewardship, the hospitals opioid policy and their transitional care management.
Jen Volenstine, RN Inpatient Nursing, said that the hospitals strong structure and assessment tools have been proven to enable some patients to have better outcomes.
Stacy Epling, RN, Chronic Care/Transitional Care said that the transitional care at Marcus Daly had really taken off and a lot of improvement has been made in getting patients back home and into the care of their primary care physician.
“This award is a testament to the hospital’s medical team and their commitment to delivering quality, evidence-based medicine to their patients,” said John Bartos, CEO. “It also confirms that the medical staff is steadfast to our mission of delivering quality, accessible, personalized healthcare despite the changes in healthcare. I am proud of every employee and the medical staff, because each person on our team plays an important role in the care that is delivered.”
Marcus Daly was one of just seven hospitals in Montana to receive the quality award.