Mercy Regional Medical Center was recently awarded a five-star rating for hospital quality care – the only Colorado hospital to do so in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services nationwide survey.
“The culture of excellence here has been developed over time,” said Bill Plauth, Mercy’s chief medical officer. “We’re just delighted for the national recognition based on all these measures. Even though the measures represent data points, it’s not data to us. They represent patients.”
This year for the first time, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – consolidated a rating structure that is based on 64 quality measures.
According to the agency, the measures are divided into seven categories: mortality, safety of care, readmissions, patient experience, effectiveness of care, timeliness of care and efficient use of medical imaging.
In all, 3,666 medical facilities – 51 in Colorado – were included in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ratings. Of that total, only 102 hospitals received the five-star rating.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website, the most common rating was three stars. Officials for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services did not respond to requests for comment, instead directing The Durango Herald to the agency’s website.
For Mercy’s Plauth, the designation accentuates years of fine-tuning operations at the hospital in Durango. He said several factors went into Mercy receiving the award.
The hospital has worked to improve its primary care initiative to follow up with patients, which can provide services they need at home and lower readmission numbers.
Plauth said other goals include improving patient experience and safety.
“We started with very strong tradition laid down by the Sisters of Mercy,” he said.
“Also, we’re part of larger network with Centura, which allows us to collaborate with multiple hospitals across the system. We’re also investing in technology to deliver the highest quality of care to patients.”
Plauth praised Mercy’s staff members, which he said are some of the most talented in the country, drawn to this small sliver of Southwest Colorado because of its beauty.
“We all benefit from being part of a community that really looks out for one another,” he said. “We’ve done well across the board in all those ratings, but we’re never satisfied with stopping there. We’re always looking to improve on our current success.”
