WC Iowa News

St. Anthony Regional Hospital Receives Three 2023 Women's Choice Awards® as one of America's Best Hospitals for Patient Experience, Emergency Care & Obstetrics

St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll, Iowa, has been named in three awards as one of America’s Best Hospitals for Patient Experience, Emergency Care, and Obstetrics by the Women’s Choice Award®, America’s trusted referral source for the best in healthcare. The award signifies that St. Anthony is in the top Patient Experience national rank as 15 out of 1,012 hospitals, (St. Anthony is classified as a medium hospital). St. Anthony is also in the top 7% for Emergency Care and the top 8% for Obstetrics.

“Receiving three Women’s Choices Awards is a great achievement,” said Anita Becker, Vice President of Patient Services and Chief Nursing Officer at St. Anthony. “These awards signify the high standards and expectations our providers and employees put forth daily to meet the needs of our patients. We are extremely proud to be recognized again for these awards.”

“The Women’s Choice Award is so much more than an award. As one of America’s Best Hospitals for Patient Experience, Emergency Care, and Obstetrics your entire hospital and all of your service lines are lifted up for the exceptional experience you provide – not only for women but for all patients,” said Delia Passi, founder and CEO of the Women’s Choice Award.

The methodology for America’s Best Hospitals for these awards is unique in that it combines national accreditations, Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey results and hospital outcome scores with primary research about women’s healthcare preferences.

Patient Experience:

The Women’s Choice Award collects the data for the following HCAHPS survey measures and uses a weighted average to award the best hospitals for patient experience:

• Effective communication with nurses and doctors
• Responsiveness to requests for help
• Providing patient recovery information
• Explanation about medications before being administered
• Bathroom and room cleanliness
• Peacefulness of room at night
• Patient recommendation rating

Emergency Care

The methodology for America’s Best Hospitals for Emergency Care award is unique in that it combines Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey results with primary research about women’s healthcare preferences. The award recognizes excellence in emergency care based on several processes of care measures focused on time patients spent in the emergency department, including:

• Total Time Spent in the Emergency Department
• Percent of Emergency Patients Who Left Without Being Seen

Criteria for selecting St. Anthony as one of America’s Best also included the percentage of patients who came to the emergency department with stroke symptoms who received brain scan results within 45 minutes of arrival. Also included this year were hospitals that performed well in responding to patients showing symptoms of severe sepsis, a very dangerous condition. The awarded hospitals represent those with emergency departments with average measure times in the highest 25th to 50th percentile in the country. Additional points were provided for the various trauma center levels.

The award is especially significant given that long waits and high crowding can negatively impact patient outcomes, including patients leaving without receiving medical treatment, longer overall length of hospital stay and an increase in mortality rates.

Obstetrics:

America’s Best Hospitals for Obstetrics gives consideration to the following specific criteria (all are not required):

• The percentage of patients reporting through the HCAHPS survey that they would definitely recommend the hospital
• Patient safety ranking based on 12 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ measures of infection and complication rates
• Low rates of early elective deliveries (between 0-1%)
• Baby-Friendly USA designation, a World Health Organization (WHO)/United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) initiative to support best practices for breast feeding education and counseling

Original source can be found here.