The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rated Potomac Valley Hospital (PVH) its highest score recently when it designated the critical access hospital a five star facility in its annual review of hospital quality and performance throughout the United States. CMS is the federal agency that administers the national Medicare and Medicaid health care programs. PVH was one of only 407 hospitals in the United States to receive the coveted 5 star rating.
“Our staff has worked diligently to provide the highest quality care possible for our patients,” said Mark Boucot, President & CEO of PVH. “The fact that we achieved the highest rating possible is attributable to the dedication of the people working in this facility. We are very proud of the exceptional care we are able to provide.”
The mission at PVH, to treat every patient like family, has helped drive its excellent care statistics. Staff show their commitment to this mission every day through their hard work and dedication. With respect to patient experience scores, PVH currently holds the number one ranking in the state of West Virginia and number eleven ranking in the nation for nurse communication with patients. The hospital also provides Emergency Department wait times below average for Critical Access Hospitals in the state, as well as low surgical site infection rates. “Long wait times in the Emergency Department at Potomac Valley Hospital are a thing of the past,” stated Amy Boothe, Chief Operating Officer for the hospital. “Even in the face of increasing patient volumes, our Emergency Department now has very short wait times and is demonstrating excellent results.”
“PVH continues to grow in the services we provide as well as the level of care our patients receive, which is reflected in our top ratings and outstanding statistics,” continued Mr. Boucot. “Much of the success we have seen is owed to the collective effort of our staff to implement performance improvement initiatives as well as an overall commitment to treat each patient like family.”
CMS created the five-star rating system in order to help health care consumers find hospitals that provide quality care as well as to inform the public as to how their community hospital is fairing. The ratings range from one to five stars. The more stars, the better a hospital performed on the available quality measures. A hospital achieving four to five stars is of the highest quality. The most common overall rating in the United States is three stars. According to www.medicare.gov, the rating summarizes a variety of measures reflecting common conditions that hospitals treat and compares how each hospital performed, on average, to others throughout the U.S.
Potomac Valley Hospital is a 25-bed critical access hospital in Keyser, West Virginia. The hospital serves the community of Mineral County, West Virginia and surrounding areas. PVH officially became a member of the West Virginia University Health System in 2014. PVH provides inpatient and outpatient care, including 24/7 Emergency Department services. PVH employs more than 250 healthcare professionals, including over 50 physicians, who are dedicated to our mission of striving to treat every patient like a member of our own family.