Asheville VA earns 5-Star quality rating for four consecutive quarters

Press release from The Charles George VA Medical Center:

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – The Charles George VA Medical Center (VAMC) recently earned a 5-Star Quality rating for the fourth consecutive quarter. The rating—which is the highest possible rating according to VA’s Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning Value (SAIL) model—puts the facility in the top 4 percent out of 128 VA medical centers for quality of care and efficiency. The facility also ranked number 1 in inpatient satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and lowest turnover rates for Registered Nurses (RN) and number 2 in the Best Place to Work category.

Comparable to the Truven system used by the private sector, which assesses inpatient care, Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) SAIL system also assesses outpatient care and includes additional factors such as employee satisfaction to determine rankings. The comprehensive tool also provides valuable data used to compare VA medical centers to their community counterparts. According to the 2015 Truven study of health systems with the best system wide performance, VA overall performs better in several categories including in-hospital mortality, patient safety events, Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) and Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) 30-day mortality, and length of stay.

Medical Center Director Cynthia Breyfogle credits the facility’s success to staff’s personal commitment to ensuring patients receive outstanding care and the team’s focus on improving the Veteran experience.

“This past year was a time of marked improvement for the medical center as we collectively focused on improving the Veteran experience by eliminating barriers to excellent customer service and ensuring every patient interaction and every communication was to the full satisfaction of the Veteran,” she said.

“Across the medical center, leadership at every level fostered a culture of continuous improvement. We more than doubled the number of staff trained in Lean principles, which resulted in several notable improvements to service delivery. We also focused on strengthening community partnerships to improve our ability to provide seamless, fully integrated care to Veterans regardless of the venue.”

Dave Przestrzelski, the Associate Director, Patient Care Services/Chief Nurse Executive, believes engaging nursing staff in defining and managing their professional practice creates a culture of empowerment and comradery among the staff of more than 450 RN’s.

“New staff are amazed that bedside nurses help create policies, process improvements, protocols and programs,” he said. “They can’t believe nurses get a full day each month to participate in the auditing, discovery and improvement process in Quality Council or that there is an internal website that allows them to voice concerns, report any non-conforming process or failure, and submit items for consideration for further research and development. That engagement contributes to the facility being ranked number 1 in VHA for lowest RN turnover.”

Breyfogle says that while there are many things that Charles George VAMC does well, there is always room for improvement.

“Most Veterans flow seamlessly through our health care system. However, we do not want any Veteran to feel their appointment is not timely,” she said. “Any Veteran who does not feel they have received a timely appointment should contact our Health Administration Service Supervisor at 828.298.7911 extension 5375 for assistance.”