The Clark Fork Valley Hospital was the recipient of a 2009-2010 Quality Achievement Award from the Mountain Pacific Quality Health Foundation (MPQHF).

According to CFVH’s Performance Improvement Manager Chris Cockrell, the hospital has been submitting data to MPQHF in a variety of categories since 2006.

CFVH was recognized for meeting the national standard for treating patients with congested heart failure, and pneumonia.

“It’s kind of big,” Cockrell said of the award. “Because it shows that we as the providers are meeting the standards that are set nationally.”

The award was presented during the General Session at the ninth Montana Hospital Association Annual Convention and Trade Show in Billings on Sept. 23.

Dr. Hanson accepted the award on behalf of the hospital and its staff.

The program was designed to recognize hospitals throughout the state for their commitment to ensuring their patients receive the highest quality care in a given area.

“We put our dashboard [data] on our website so people can see,” Cockrell said. “We’re kind of open about how we do in certain areas, and where we need to improve.”

In order to qualify for the award The Clark Fork Valley Hospital earned a 95 percent composite score on the most recent Centers for Medicare/Medicaid Public Report, and had 100 percent compliance for both Heart Failure and Pneumonia clinical indicators.

In order to qualify for the award, a third party source must verify that the hospital’s records are at least 90 percent accurate for two consecutive quarters.

“When I enter data and it’s transmitted to CMS they contract out a company that requests five of the charts every quarter,” Cockrell explained. “They go through and get copies and decide.” 

Consideration was also given for some of CFVH’s patient safety initiatives and the hospitals management’s steps to ensure quality treatment.

“What they’re looking for is facilities that are looking at all areas to improve patient safety and improve how we take care of them,” Cockrell said.

In-house improvement initiatives like the 2009 Hand Hygiene Campaign, and this year’s Employee Immunization Program were noted.

The Hand Hygeine Campaign “was a big campaign last year with education and actually moving the alcohol stations outside the rooms instead of in the rooms,” Cockrell said. “Our goal was 80 percent and we actually had 100 percent compliance.”

The hospital’s governing board was also recognized for dedicating 25 percent of their meeting time to quality control issues with regard to patient care.

Additionally, the CFVH demonstrated their commitment to a high level of quality performance by meeting for exceeding requirements in the areas of dashboard reporting, development and implementation of electronic medical records.

Mountain-Pacific, who presented the award, is the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Montana, Wyoming, Hawaii and Alaska. They work with the Centers for Medicate and Medicaid Services in order to promote proven best practices and therefore improve health care.