A strong culture of quality and safety, from the loading dock to administration, have led Providence St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, Mont. to the top rating from the U.S. government for the past nine years.
Annually, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rates all hospitals in the U.S. on a scale of one to five stars, based on mortality, safety of care, readmission rates, timely and effective care and patient feedback. CMS has given Providence St. Patrick five stars, the highest rating, every year since 2017.
“The requirements are rigorous to earn five stars for one year alone,” said Daniel Spoon, M.D., chief medical officer for Providence St. Patrick Hospital. “To earn this CMS rating for nine straight years speaks not only to our culture of quality, but to the Mission-centered focus of every caregiver at St. Pat’s.”
In particular, the hospital has been highly rated consistently for:
- Bridging care gaps so all populations receive care that leads to the best outcomes
- Care for patients with sepsis
- Low rate of hospital-acquired infections
- Doctor and nurse communication with patients
- “Willingness to recommend” the hospital to others, taken from patient post-hospitalization surveys
Pam Estill, MSN, RN, CPHQ, director of Quality, Patient Safety and Risk for Providence St. Patrick, attributes the hospital’s longstanding success to a focus on individual metrics and the patients behind them.
“We have disease-specific workgroups with subject matter experts in each clinical area,” Estill said. “These experts are interdisciplinary — they’re nurses, doctors, pharmacists and lab techs who are familiar with standards of care, the work at the bedside and which interventions are most likely to impact care.”
Process improvement is a top priority at Providence St. Patrick, from leadership to individual caregivers, Estill said.
“When appropriate, we look at individual patient experiences to see what we could have done better. And our Value Stream team works with caregivers from every department and patient touchpoint to analyze care provided across the continuum of care. They help us identify gaps, make changes, analyze the success of the changes and to modify the action plans as needed.”
Several patients return their post-hospitalization surveys with notes of appreciation. A few comments have included:
- “The infectious disease physician provided an extremely clear treatment plan and a means for my father-in-law to contact him following his hospital stay. His kindness and humanity made him very relatable. There is no doubt that St. Patrick Hospital remains the center of excellence for medical care in Montana. After this personal experience, I am impressed and surprised at how deeply your culture of caring permeates. Your teams embody the ethos of excellence and desire to serve all with compassion.”
- “To the outstanding nursing service, doctors, and support personnel at Providence St. Patrick Hospital, I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the care given to me. Having worked in the hospital setting for many years, it was obvious to me that the team was well trained and extended medical care that was above and beyond, leading to a great outcome.”
With a foundation built on rigorous standards, interdisciplinary collaboration and a culture of continuous improvement, Providence St. Patrick Hospital stands as a beacon of health care excellence in Montana.
“For the last nine years, our team has continually elevated and advanced the level of care provided here,” Dr. Spoon said. “I am truly humbled by their unwavering dedication to excellence, their compassion and their steadfast commitment to our patients.”
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