Cary Medical Center in Caribou has been recognized by a National Patient Survey Company as an ‘Overall Best Performer’ for the fourth consecutive year. Avatar Solutions, surveying some 600 hospitals nationwide, recently announced the annual awards highlighting its top performers. According to the company, only three of the hospitals surveyed have ever achieved this level of recognition awarded to Cary Medical Center.

“We truly enjoy recognizing our patient experience and workforce engagement award recipients each year,” said Lynn Ehrmantraut, Senior Vice President of Performance Improvement at Avatar Solutions. “The awards highlight the organizations’ commitment to fulfilling their respective missions, in providing a great place to receive care, a great place to work, and a great place to practice medicine. Each of the award-winning organizations deserves this special recognition for all of their accomplishments and innovations over the past year.”

In addition to receiving the Best Performer Award Cary also earned the award for ‘Exceeding Patient Expectations’ for the ninth year in a row.  Only seven hospitals among the 600 surveyed have accomplished this in the history of the Avatar patient satisfaction surveying process.  Kris Doody, RN, MSB and Chief Executive Officer at Cary Medical Center said that this level of consistency in performance is a reflection of the unique culture that has been created at the hospital.

“To consistently earn national recognition by third party, objective, independent organizations really demonstrates the dedication and commitment that our people bring to their work every day”, said Doody.  “That level of commitment over many years has helped to build a culture of caring that has become a way of life here.  Our people consider the work they do a calling and they live the culture.  The Avatar Award is based on what our patients are saying about us and that is what makes the award so special.”

The Avatar Best Performer Award comes on the heels of other recognition the hospital has received. The Leapfrog Group, an independent nonprofit organization representing employers and purchasers of health care recently gave the Cary Medical Center an ‘A’ in their Hospital Patient Safety Score.  The Hospital Safety Score program grades hospitals on their overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors. The grades are derived from expert analysis of publicly available data using 26 evidence-based, national measures of hospital safety.   Cary is one of eleven hospitals in Maine to receive the ‘A’ score, and one of only seven that have received the highest grade since the inception of the grading system in 2012.

The hospital also received the 2015 ‘Outstanding Patient Experience Award’ from Healthgrades

The Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ recognizes hospitals for providing outstanding patient experience based on 10 measures related to doctor and nurse communication, hospital cleanliness and noise levels, and medication and post-discharge care instructions. The award is based on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) patient survey data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

The Maine Health Management Coalition conducts an annual ‘Medication Spotlight’ survey.  Cary Medical Center received a ‘Best’ rating.  The Medication Spotlight Survey is a tool used to measure the use of practices used to eliminate or decrease hospital pharmacy errors.  Computerized Physician Order Entry, Bed-Side Medication Bar Coding, the use of ‘Smart Pumps’ and a number of other patient practices are utilized by Cary Medical Center, helping the hospital achieve the ‘Best’ rating.  Shawn Anderson, Chief Operating Officer at Cary Medical Center said that while the awards reflect well on the hospital’s performance there is an even more important element.

“While these awards are appreciated and acknowledge the great work being done by our staff”, said Anderson, “more importantly they help our patients and their families gain the confidence that when they choose Cary Medical Center as their healthcare provider they know that our standards of quality care, patient safety and patient experience are among the highest in the nation.”

Cary Medical Center also received high marks in the Maine Health Management Coalition ‘Get Better Maine’ survey of Maine’s Hospitals.  (getbettermaine.org). The hospital’s performance on Nursing Communications with patients, pain control and responding to patients when called scored above the top 10% of hospitals in the nation.