September 21, 2011
Catawba Valley Medical Center Earns Medical Fitness Facility Certification
HICKORY, NC –Catawba Valley Medical Center recently announced that
it has become a certified medical fitness facility by the Medical Fitness
Association, the country’s leading organization dedicated solely
to medically integrated outcomes and accountability based fitness facilities.
This certification is a significant step forward in the health of the
entire community and to the individuals taking responsibility for their
personal healthcare.
“I’m very proud of our staff. They’ve worked hard to
set Fitness Plus apart,” says Marcus Osborne, LAT, ATC, CSCS, Director
of Fitness Plus. “At Fitness Plus, we don’t just focus on
working-out, we strive to improve our members’ quality of life.”
This program is the first and only certification offered specifically to
facilities in the medical fitness industry—an industry that serves
over four million members worldwide. Based on the Medical Fitness Association’s
naturally recognized official Standards and Guidelines for Medical Fitness
Facilities, the certification process is an integral part of ensuring
that facilities provide the quality and safety of the programs and services
that are necessary to meet the vital role that medical fitness centers
perform. The Medical Fitness Association Facility Certification is recognized
as a mark of excellence in the health and wellness industry.
“With our health care system continuing to be stressed and the incidence
of disease on the rise, the need for more medically supervised, outcomes
and accountability based delivered fitness was never more relevant in
our industry than today,” says Ken Germano, Executive Director of
the Medical Fitness Association. “It is clear that the task to produce
and deliver all the necessary components, guidelines, is impossible for
any single group, association or organization alone. In this thought,
we find ourselves at a crossroads in our industry and in need of solutions.
The time is now!”
The Medical Fitness Association is a not-for-profit member organization,
whose purpose is to lead in the development and operational success of
medically integrated fitness centers impacting the “global health
continuum of care” by providing research, industry standards, operational
guidelines, educational programming, benchmarking, outcome measurements,
professional development, and networking opportunities accomplished through
its webinar series, regional meetings, Medical Fitness Institute, Annual
Conference and publications.
Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, N.C., is the region’s largest
not-for-profit, public healthcare system and serves the community without
direct funding from taxes. CVMC provides and
promotes physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being of the public
in addition to serving as a center for health education, wellness services,
preventive medicine and acute care. CVMC has received three Magnet designations
from the American Nurses Credentialing Center and has been recognized
for providing “An Outstanding Inpatient Experience” for a
fourth consecutive year by J.D. Power and Associates. For more information,
please visit
http://www.catawbavalleymedical.org.