Catawba Valley Medical Center receives national award for providing safe, efficient and effective care

HICKORY, NC – June 14, 2013 – Catawba Valley Medical Center (CVMC) has been nationally recognized for reducing harm, mortality, readmissions and costs, while improving the patient experience and delivering evidence-based care.

CVMC is one of five hospitals to receive the QUEST® Award for High-Value Healthcare from Premier, a hospital-owned performance improvement alliance of 2,800 hospitals and nearly 100,000 other care sites.

CVMC was honored during Premier’s annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition in San Antonio for achieving top performance in all six of the areas measured in Premier’s national QUEST collaborative.

Specifically, CVMC is being recognized for:

  • Reducing mortality by at least 31 percent;
  • Reducing the average cost of care to less than $5,690 per discharge;
  • Reliably delivering all evidence-based care measures to patients in the areas of heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care at least 95 percent of the time;
  • Improving the hospital experience so that patients favorably rate their stay and would recommend the facility to others at least 73 percent of the time;
  • Reducing preventable harm events; and
  • Reducing readmissions by at least 12 percent.

“CVMC strives to improve patient care and outcomes every single day,” said Tony Rose, CVMC President and CEO. “This recognition, and the continued participation in this collaborative, reinforces our commitment to bettering the health status of the Catawba Valley. We’re honored to receive the QUEST Award.”

“Meeting the imperatives of better care at a lower cost isn’t easy for health systems to achieve on their own,” said Susan DeVore, Premier president and CEO. “It’s this type of collaboration and innovation that’s needed system-wide to build a sustainable future for healthcare and most importantly communities nationwide. Premier congratulates Catawba Valley Medical Center for their outstanding performance.”

333 QUEST members participating from Oct. 1, 2011 through September 2012 were eligible for the award. QUEST hospitals agree to:

  • Transparently share progress on a set of uniform measures on a regular basis;
  • Share best practices and successful innovations with all members of the collaborative; and
  • Take part in structured collaborative execution activities (such as 90-day improvement sprints).

Top performance thresholds were established at the top quartile of performance from a baseline period in all measures except cost of care, which was based on the median of the total inpatient cost per case mix adjusted discharge. Top performance methodology for each dimension varied depending on the unique measure calculation and methodology.

The Premier healthcare alliance and our nation’s leading hospitals created the QUEST collaborative. QUEST hospitals monitor and measure performance to ensure delivery of high-quality, cost-effective care. In their first four years, they’ve saved nearly 92,000 lives and $9 billion.

QUEST hospitals across 40 states continue to increase adherence to evidence-based care delivery, improve the patient experience and avoid harm while reducing mortality, cost of care and readmissions.

About the Premier healthcare alliance, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Premier is the nation’s largest performance improvement alliance of more than 2,800 U.S. hospitals and nearly 100,000 other sites using the power of collaboration and technology to lead the transformation to coordinated, high-quality, cost-effective care. Owned by healthcare providers, Premier operates a leading purchasing network with more than $5 billion in annual savings. Premier also maintains clinical, financial and outcomes databases based on 1 in every 4 patient discharges. A world leader in measurably improving patient care, Premier has the largest performance improvement collaboratives in America, including one in partnership with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has an office in Washington. https://www.premierinc.com. Stay connected with Premier on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

About Catawba Valley Medical Center
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 with three Women’s Choice Awards, being named one of America’s Best 100 Hospitals for Patient Experience in 2012, a 2013 Best Hospital for Patient Experience in Obstetrics and one of America’s Best Hospitals in Orthopedics in 2013 by WomenCertified®.

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