Hospital gets highest marks

Published 12:00 am Saturday, April 8, 2000

River Valley Health System has received top ratings from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Saturday, April 08, 2000

River Valley Health System has received top ratings from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

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The ratings include the acute care hospital in Ironton, mental health facility in Portsmouth and the satellite Family MedCare Clinics in Lawrence and Scioto counties.

The Joint Commission is the nationally accepted standard by which healthcare providers are voluntarily accredited. All participating healthcare organizations must meet the same standards regardless of size, which means RVHS is judged at the same level as the Cleveland Clinic or the Ohio State University Medical Center.

"Five surveyors were here during three days," said Terry Vanderhoof, CEO. Surveyors were on-site during the last week of March. Three focused on the main campuses in Ironton and Portsmouth, one worked with the RVHS Home Health Agency and one with the Family MedCare Clinics.

The team included a physician, registered nurses and a healthcare administrator.

"Our scores were all A-pluses," Vanderhoof added. "The RVHS Home Health Agency scored extremely high, with the surveyor saying we provided among the best quality of service she had seen in almost 30 years."

RVHS has long been accredited by the Joint Commission; however, new, more stringent standards went into place on Jan. 1, making the A-plus rating even more prestigious, he said.

"The survey is very inclusive," Vanderhoof explained. "For example, surveyors made visits with Home Health Agency nurses to patient homes to observe the care and interaction process. Also, all related documentation was carefully scrutinized."

In addition to visits to patient homes, other Home Health Agency services, such as physical therapy and speech therapy, were examined to ensure all aspects meet or exceed the newest national standards.

"At the MedCare Clinics, the surveyor said the facilities are outstanding, and we again were told that the care and procedures are among the best she had seen," Vanderhoof said.

The Portsmouth mental health hospital previously was a state-operated facility. During the past several years, the state and RVHS formed a partnership to move it from governmental to private operation. The final phase of that privatization effort was recently concluded.

"The surveyors were especially impressed with the growth in services as well as enhanced quality since River Valley took over (in Portsmouth)," the CEO said.

Vanderhoof and the RVHS management team said this year’s surveyors were more intense and knowledgeable than those they had encountered during previous accreditation reviews. Healthcare organizations must be reaccredited every three years.

"The team had a very aggressive schedule, with every hour accounted for," he said. "Teams visited every department, including imaging, emergency services, surgery, lab, dietary and pharmacy as well as in-patient units to review care procedures, protocol and documentation."

Staff qualifications also were scrutinized to ensure training and experience levels are at maximum levels.

"Two years ago, RVHS received a rating of 93, which we received again during this survey," Vanderhoof said. "However, with the new standards that went in place Jan. 1, this would have been equivalent to nearly 100 percent using standards from the previous survey.

"Surveyors told us we received the highest score that had been given out yet this year."

He said accreditation by the Joint Commission gives consumers the assurance that healthcare services at RVHS offer the highest level of quality as judged by an outside, non-biased agency.

"We are committed to the process of continually improving our performance," Vanderhoof said. "Total quality management has grown in importance in industry during the past decade, and it is a process that we have incorporated into our daily work at RVHS.

"That is why we voluntarily invite the Joint Commission to come in and to show ourselves and our customers that we are on the cutting edge."

For the past two years, RVHS has participated in a pilot Joint Commission program called "Continual Survey Readiness." Through the program, surveyors are available to RVHS for ongoing consultations, plus surveyors make multiple site visits prior to the survey.

"RVHS was one of the first hospitals in Ohio to volunteer for the continual readiness program, which shows our commitment to quality," Vanderhoof said. "In fact, our continual survey readiness surveyor has been so impressed with our programs that we have been asked to present a special program during a Joint Commission-sponsored seminar May 2 in Columbus."

He credited the RVHS medical staff, management team, board of trustees and volunteers for the high rankings.

"Our mission statement is that we strive ‘to promote healthy communities through comprehensive family-centered care’," Vanderhoof said. "Our board is to be complimented for providing the resources necessary to fulfill our mission."

He also thanked RVHS employees, adding, "The community is very fortunate to have the type of dedicated employees who have made this high rating possible. It was obvious to the Joint Commission surveyors that not only do we have the best in high-tech equipment and high-quality patient care, but we provide all of that in a family atmosphere. We treat people as if they were our own families."