— from Deanna Ellefson for PeaceHealth —
PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center in Friday Harbor was recognized with a Premier, Inc. QUEST® award for High-Value Healthcare for a third time in four years. Additionally, the island’s medical center was awarded as the top performer for improvement in 2019. Both awards were announced at Premier’s annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition June 18-21, 2019.
QUEST is a national quality improvement collaborative and leading healthcare performance improvement alliance of more than 4,000 U.S. hospitals and health systems and 165,000 additional providers and organizations.
PeaceHealth Peace Island received a QUEST Finalist award for high value healthcare; a distinction for achieving top performance in four of the five dimensions evaluated for the award:
- Affordability
- Mortality
- Patient Safety
- Patient and Family Engagement
- Effective Care and Coordination
A peer-group improvement award recognized PeaceHealth Peace Island as the winner and top performing hospital within counterpart Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) nationwide. “It came as a surprise to learn we received the peer-group improvement award,” said Merry-Ann Keane, CAO, PeaceHealth Peace Island. This is the first year Premier, Inc. has offered the award.
Improvement for this peer-group award was assessed in four priority areas:
- Prevention and Treatment for Leading Causes of Mortality
- Effective Care and Coordination
- Affordability
- Patient Safety
“QUEST hospitals have set high standards in clinical excellence and value nationwide,” said Keane, “It’s an honor to be recognized for achievements that ultimately improve healthcare for island residents and those we serve.”
About PeaceHealth: Based in Vancouver, Wash., PeaceHealth is a not-for-profit Catholic health system offering care to communities in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. In 1890, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace founded what has become PeaceHealth. PeaceHealth Peace Island Medical Center, a 10-bed Critical Access Hospital in Friday Harbor, serves communities in the San Juan Islands. Key services include general and orthopedic surgery, oncology, behavioral health and primary care. Visit us online at peacehealth.org.
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Wow! And Wow circled in orange crayon ( the only color instrument available to me at the reading of scholarship applications). My primitive “scoring system”, wholly inadequate as it turned out for this marvelous and truly amazing class of 2019. As a one of the Kiwanis members charged with deciding which of those applications (received from these outstanding students and human beings )would merit a scholarship, I discovered the absolute pain in leaving anyone out.
If you missed the awards ceremony and or graduation of this mature, intelligent( in so many ways) caring, kind and compassionate class, well yes you missed out on a unique community experience.
Bravo to the parents, teachers, administrators, advisors, school board, community and students. To anyone who assisted these students along the way, Bravo.
A special shout out to Amelia and to Parker and their rubber duckies.
We all look forward to following the great accomplishments to come and to witnessing the caring lives that you will lead. You all can only help make this world a better place.
Thank you graduates of Orcas high school class of 2019.
Respectfully,
Joanne Cundy