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Scott Memorial Health in Scottsburg, Ind., was recently named a Lifepoint Health National Quality Leader. This special designation recognizes hospitals within the system that have enrolled in the LifePoint National Quality Program and succeeded in transforming their culture of safety and achieving high standards of quality care, performance improvement, and patient engagement.
Scott Memorial Health is a 25-bed critical access hospital that has served the people of Scott County for 63 years. Over the past several years, the hospital has worked to bridge the gap between acute care and skilled nursing care via its swing bed unit, which enables the patient to transition from the hospital to home. Scott Memorial is one of the few facilities that care for COVID-19-positive patients in this setting. The hospital has also increased access to a wide variety of specialty care services close to home, including Surgery, Cardiology, Urology, Oncology, Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN), and Nephrology. Scott Memorial has also actively participated in state and nationwide quality teams to help prevent medical errors in health care and keep patients safe in their communities.
Gearl Dean Williams is the director of quality and case management at Scott Memorial Health. Williams said she is honored to be a part of a hospital system that is continuously working to serve the needs of the community it serves.
“We are so proud of this important quality designation and the hard work and commitment of our staff who ensure our patients receive safe, high-quality care and continue to improve how we deliver,” Williams said.
“Scott Memorial Health consistently delivers when it comes to ensuring the highest standards of quality and patient safety, and we are pleased to recognize this hospital as the newest Lifepoint Health National Quality Leader,” said Jason Zachariah, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Lifepoint Health.
“The team’s exceptional work advances our mission of making communities healthier in meaningful ways, and we could not be prouder of their accomplishments and the example they set for all of our facilities across the Lifepoint network.”
When hospitals enroll in the National Quality Program, they begin working with Lifepoint quality experts to evaluate and strengthen their quality programs and processes. Following an initial evaluation, the hospital creates a plan and begins to employ changes that will help it achieve quality improvement benchmarks and establish long-term solutions to sustain its results.
Williams said the decision to enroll in the program was an easy one.
“We enrolled in Lifepoint’s National Quality Program in 2016 because of our desire to strengthen our quality programs and processes,” he said. “Delivering high quality is about our patients, team members, and our community. Moving forward, our team members are focused on sustaining high-quality care and a culture of safety which includes continuous performance and process improvements.
