Medical center staff receive top quality award

Staff members at Wrangell Medical Center last month were awarded the 2014 Hospital Quality Award by Mountain-Pacific Quality Health Foundation, which supports healthcare groups in Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming and Montana.

The awards were presented at the annual Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association Conference in Girdwood on Sept. 11. WMC was one of six Alaska hospitals recognized for its dedication to ensuring high-quality care in seven national quality project areas. It was also one of three hospitals in the state that scored above 95 percent on its two most recent quarters of data, along with Petersburg Medical Center and Providence Kodiak Medical Center.

Medical facilities were scored on seven national quality areas, a composite score known as the Appropriate Care Measure. Heart attacks and failures, pneumonia, surgical care and infection prevention, immunizations, strokes and venous thromboembolism numbers and treatments are the primary areas considered in the ACM score.

In addition, each hospital must have a

presence on Hospital Compare, a consumer guidance site created by Medicare and the Hospital Quality Alliance. The hospital must also not have been penalized for hospital readmissions, and participate in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems.

To win the Quality Achievement Award – the top honor given by the regional foundation – hospitals must reach a 95-percent performance composite score for the most recent two quarters of data.

This is the first time WMC has won

the award, having previously received the second-tier Commitment to Quality Award

in 2012.