SMH RECEIVES AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

SCHOOLCRAFT MEMORIAL HOSPITAL RECEIVES
2011 MICHIGAN RURAL HEALTH
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT ACHIEVENT AWARD OF EXCELLENCE


Manistique, MI  11/2011 ~ Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital (SMH) was the recipient of two Michigan Rural Health Quality Improvement Awards in October presented at the annual Michigan Critical Access Hospital Conference in Gaylord, Michigan.

SMH received awards in the following categories - Excellence Achieved in Emergency Department Transfer Performance and Quality Improvement Achieved in Inpatient Clinical Performance for Pneumonia patients.

"SMH has shown exceptional commitment to providing their patients with high quality health care, " said John Barnas, Executive Director of the Michigan Center for Rural Health.  "We are pleased to sponsor this award and recognize the dedication of hospital staff to provide the right care to the right patient each and every time."

SMH is committed to the tenets of quality improvement that embrace evidence-based medicine to improve health outcomes, said Sherry Arnold, Director of Quality Improvement and Risk Management.  Our staff demonstrates on a daily basis that we are providing the very best in medical care."

SMH has been consistent in the level of high quality health care they practice, however,
Arnold (pictured center below) stresses it's the commitment and professional ethic of their multidisciplinary team create interventions that improved the treatment of acute pneumonia and in improvements in emergency department transfers.

Clinical indicators for the 2011 Michigan Rural Health Quality Improvement Award - and its Award of Excellence were based on the Appropriate Care Measure (ACM), a composite score of 95-100 percent that captures whether or not a patient received all the care that he or she was eligible to receive.  The Quality Improvement Achievement Award for emergency department transfer performance is based on an ED transfer score of 98-100 percent.

The Michigan Center for Rural Health is a non-profit organization formed in 1991 as part of a nation-wide, federal and state initiative to recognize the importance of rural health care and to create a mechanism for resources to flow to rural areas.