Awards Confirm Quality of Healthcare for Utah County Residents

The hospitals, both part of the Intermountain Healthcare system, have been presented with 2016 HealthInsight Quality Awards for demonstrating high-quality patient care and a commitment to improving health care. The awards are presented by HealthInsight, a nonprofit, community-based collaborative working to improve health and healthcare for patients and providers.

The 2016 HealthInsight Quality Awards recognize hospitals for demonstrating high-quality healthcare and excellence in performance on a combination of publicly reported process of care measures, patients’ perception of care measures and 30-day hospital-wide readmission rates. Hospitals at or above the 75^th percentile nationally receive an award.

“All of the caregivers at American Fork Hospital are dedicated to providing the very best in patient care and this award is a direct result of their excellent work,” said Jason Wilson, administrator at American Fork.

Steve Smoot, CEO at Utah Valley, recognized it takes commitment from both clinical and non-clinical team members in order to achieve the scores necessary to earn a Quality Award.

“Including patient perception scores in the criteria of the HealthInsight award highlights the importance of every person on our staff. They’ve provided excellent care with care and compassion and they’ve done it consistently,” said Smoot.

The measurement period for the 2016 Quality Awards was October 2014 through September 2014. Each facility had to focus on different measures in order to qualify for the award. For example, Utah Valley concentrated on its performance with care measures for heart attacks and preventing blood clots. American Fork worked on achieving high patient satisfaction scores.

"We’re pleased to recognize these outstanding hospitals that continue to improve their quality of care year after year,” said Juliana Preston, executive director, HealthInsight Utah. “Continuing to include patients’ perception of care in the award criteria allows us to reward a more complete picture of ‘quality’ health care at large and small hospitals throughout the state.”

HealthInsight recognized 18 hospitals in Utah with Quality Awards, 14 of which were Intermountain facilities. The awards were presented at this month’s Utah Hospital Association’s Annual Awards Dinner in Park City.

• Learn more about American Fork Hospital
• Learn more about Utah Valley Hospital