MOSES LAKE — Four local hospitals were awarded the Achievement of Quality Excellence by the Washington State Hospital Association at the WSHA Rural Hospital Leadership Conference in Chelan on June 28. 

“For this year's award, the measures that we looked at related to quality, and those are: working on climate change; working on health equity; our safe deliveries road map, which is related to perinatal work, quality work in the delivering babies arena; fall prevention; opioid harm prevention; sepsis; and workplace violence,” said WSHA Director of Clinical Excellence, Rural Programs Megan Herman.

Confluence Hospital in Wenatchee, which serves Moses Lake, Royal City and Ephrata through branch clinics, was a gold honoree, according to an announcement from Confluence Health. Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake and Coulee Medical Center in Grand Coulee also received gold awards, according to the WSHA, and Columbia Basin Hospital in Ephrata received the silver award.

“There have been tons of different projects and initiatives that have been ongoing (at Confluence), many of which were directly working toward the characteristics that WSHA was evaluating this year, which were fall prevention, sepsis and opioid harm prevention,” said Adam MacDonald, corporate communications program manager for Confluence Health. “Those are all areas that Confluence has been working toward over the year.”

This is the fourth year that the WSHA has given awards for excellence in rural hospitals, according to the WSHA website. The award originated because some hospitals can get an increase in Medicaid payments from the data the WSHA uses, Herman explained, but Critical Access hospitals, which serve rural, low-population areas, are paid differently and weren’t eligible for the increase. 

“We developed this program to award them for participating in this quality work, even though they don’t get the money for it,” Herman said.

This year, the pool of eligible hospitals was expanded, which is why Confluence and Samaritan are making their first appearance on the list. 

“We are incredibly proud of our Rural Hospital Achievement of Quality Excellence recipients,” WSHA Senior Vice President of Clinical Excellence Darcy Jaffe wrote in the announcement. “The Association and our hospital members take great pride in providing patients with outstanding care, as quality is the cornerstone of all healthcare. Everyone, no matter where they live in the state, should be able to access quality healthcare, and our members help make that possible.” 

In addition to the areas the announcement mentioned, Confluence has been working on cooperation among different disciplines, not always an easy feat in a field with so much specialization, MacDonald said. 

“Instead of having one team working on something, one team working on another thing, (that means) having them work together to figure out places where they have common ground and where they can support and encourage each other across those disciplines,” MacDonald said. “You have teams that have different ways of doing things, and bringing those together is good for the patient.”

The criteria that the WSHA uses for the awards are the same ones they apply to big, well-equipped urban hospitals, Herman said.

“We’re really looking at rural hospitals meeting the same standards with less resources,” she said. “Our patients expect to be able walk into any hospital in the state and get quality care. Our rural hospitals should be providing that level of care to their patients, and we see them doing that … With a rural hospital, your staff wear multiple hats and that can (make it) a big challenge to be able to focus on quality work.”

    Confluence Hospital in Wenatchee, which serves patients in Grant County, was recognized last month by the Washington State Hospital Association for quality rural health care. Among the criteria for the award were fall prevention, sepsis prevention and perinatal work.
  

    The Achievement of Quality Excellence award beings with it a plaque and a logo that winning hospitals can display on their websites, said Washington State Hospital Association Director of Clinical Excellence, Rural Programs Megan Herman, as well as recognition for having done the same quality work as urban hospitals with a fraction of their resources.