Press release from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs:
Today, as part of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) efforts to remain transparent and hold VA facilities accountable, VA released its end of fiscal year 2018 (FY2018) hospital Star ratings, which evaluate and benchmark quality of care delivery at VA medical centers (VAMCs) across the nation.
Charles George VAMC is one of the facilities that made positive strides in the benchmarks and is striving to continue progress. Charles George VAMC returned to the 5-Star rating it held for two years prior to the 2017 rating. In addition, the medical center went from being ranked 27th to 2nd among 130 acute care VA hospitals in the nation.
“We do not chase measures. We strive to provide excellent care and the measures speak for themselves,” said Medical Center Director Stephanie Young. Ms. Young went on to say, “I am very proud of the continuous efforts made by our staff to ensure Veterans living in Western North Carolina receive the best care.”
Charles George VA Medical Center’s improvement reflects focused efforts to positively impact quality measures within multiple areas including mortality rates, hospital infections, in-hospital complications, length of stay, mental health care, outpatient and in-patient performance metrics, hospital readmissions, access to care, wait times, and patient and employee satisfaction.
Over the past four years, Charles George VA Medical Center has been consistently rated as a 4 and 5-Star facility. The facility has also consistently rated high in patient satisfaction and it is currently ranked #4 for “Best Place to Work” among all VA medical centers.
The Star rating designation is designed to help VA identify best practices of its top performing hospitals and share them across VA’s health care system to achieve system-wide improvements.
Compared with data from the same period a year ago, the release of VA’s Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning (SAIL)report shows 66 percent of VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) have improved in overall quality in the third quarter — with the largest gains seen in areas where there were VA-wide improvement initiatives, such as mortality, length of stay and avoidable adverse events.
Additionally, of the medical centers placed under the Strategic Action for Transformation program (StAT), an initiative that monitors high-risk medical centers and mobilizes resources to assist them, eight are no longer considered high risk and 80 percent (12 medical centers) show measurable improvements since being placed under StAT in January 2018.
“There’s no doubt that there’s still plenty of work to do, but I’m proud of our employees, who work tirelessly to move VA in the right direction for Veterans and taxpayers,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.
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