Intermountain Press Release

St. George, Utah—Representatives from HealthInsight presented Dixie Regional Medical Center Administrator Terri Kane with two awards at the Utah Hospital Association Fall Leadership Conference held last week at The Homestead resort in Midway, Utah.

Dixie Regional was one of three Utah hospitals earning the 2007 HealthInsight Quality Award for demonstrating high quality healthcare and excellence in performance on publicly reported quality of care measures. Lakeview and Ogden Regional Medical Center were the other hospitals honored. Dixie Regional also received recognition as the hospital realizing the greatest national improvement over the past year, leading all hospitals in Utah and Nevada with an overall 91 percent national ranking. Lakeview finished second with an 82 percent ranking and Ogden Regional third with a 77 percent ranking. No Nevada hospitals finished in the top 25 percent.

The HealthInsight Quality Award recognizes hospitals that achieve high levels of performance in publicly reported quality measures. Heart attack patients should receive aspirin upon hospital arrival and it should be prescribed upon discharge. ACE inhibitor medication should be prescribed for left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Heart attack patients should be given beta-blocker medication upon arrival and it should be prescribed for them upon discharge. Heart failure patients should undergo left ventricular function assessment and receive ACE inhibitor medication for left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Pneumonia patients should receive antibiotic within four hours of hospital arrival. They should also undergo oxygenation assessment and have pneumococcal vaccination on record.

The clinical topics measured for the awards were designated national healthcare priorities by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

"The physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals at Dixie Regional are dedicated to providing the very best in patient care," said Kane. "I am so grateful for their commitment to those we serve. These distinguished awards are a direct tribute to their excellent efforts."