STERLING, Colo. (Feb. 19, 2019) – Sterling Regional MedCenter has been named one of the Top 100 Rural & Community Hospitals in the United States by The Chartis Center for Rural Health. This is the third year in a row the hospital received this recognition.

 

The annual Top 100 Rural & Community Hospitals award is based upon the results of the Hospital Strength INDEX® from iVantage Health Analytics and is regarded as one of the industry’s most significant designations of performance excellence.

 

“We won’t take this recognition for granted because to provide excellent quality care consistently requires daily attention to detail,” said Sterling’s interim CEO Wade Tyrrell. “Doing so three years in a row indicates this level of performance is part of our culture.” 

 

Tyrrell provides these examples of how Sterling Regional MedCenter employees work to provide high quality care every day:

 

• Give extra attention to patients who are at high risk of falling to reduce falls during hospital stays

• Follow processes in clinical care to reduce infections after surgery

• Require hospital employees, volunteers and physicians to get a vaccination for the flu every year unless they have an approved exemption. This keeps them safe so they can continue to provide excellent care for patients.

• Help patients learn about self-care procedures they can use after they leave the hospital to reduce the need for them to be readmitted within 30 days

• Provide employees the chance to give feedback to leadership on how we can make the hospital the best place to work.

 

Hospitals recognized as a Top 100 facility scored in the top 100 among all rural and community hospitals nationally. Now in its ninth year, the INDEX leverages 50 rural-relevant indicators across eight pillars of hospital strength (i.e. Inpatient Market Share, Outpatient Market Chare, Cost, Charge, Quality, Outcomes, Patient Perspective and Financial Stability) to determine an overall score for each hospital. Each of the INDEX’s 50 indicators is culled from publicly-available data sources.  

 

“In an era of increased complexity and uncertainty, Top 100 hospitals have established themselves as a bellwether for rural provider performance,” said Michael Topchik, national leader of The Chartis Center for Rural Health. “Top 100 status is a real indicator of how proactive these hospitals are when it comes to pushing for performance improvement in areas such as quality, outcomes, patient safety, market share and finance.”

 

The list of this year’s Top 100 Rural & Community Hospitals, as well as the 2019 INDEX methodology, can be found at www.ivantageindex.com/top-performing-hospitals.

 

Banner Health, based in Phoenix, includes 28 hospitals and nearly 50,000 employees in six states. The system also encompasses a physician group, an academic division, home health, surgical centers, outpatient services, research and an insurance group. 

 

To learn more about The Chartis Center for Rural Health or to speak with someone regarding the INDEX and the 2019 Top 100, please email Billy Balfour at wbalfour@ivantagehealth.com.