For the second time in the past three years, Ministry Good Samaritan Health Center, Merrill, has been named one of the iVantage Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in the United States.
Ministry Good Samaritan is joined by fellow Ministry Health Care facilities Calumet Medical Center, Chilton, and Ministry Door County Medical Center, Sturgeon Bay, in being named to the Top 100 CAHs listing this year. Ministry Health Care is a member of Ascension Health, the nation’s largest Catholic and non-profit health system.
CAHs are certified to receive cost-based reimbursement from Medicare. The reimbursement they receive is intended to improve their financial performance and thereby reduce hospital closures. Each hospital must review its own situation to determine if CAH status would be advantageous. CAHs are certified under a different set of Medicare conditions of participation that are more flexible than those of other acute care hospitals.
Eleven Wisconsin hospitals are on the top 100 CAHs list; only the state of Iowa had more facilities named with 13. Nearly 35 percent of the Top 100 CAHs are found in Wisconsin and surrounding states.
“This recognition is a testament to our associates’ commitment to continuous improvement and using best practices for the benefits of our patients,” said Ministry Good Samaritan President, Mary Krueger. “We are acutely aware of the role critical access hospitals play in providing health care to rural areas and take great pride in the services and level of care we are able to provide to the Merrill community and Lincoln County.”
The top 100 of Critical Access Hospitals designation is based on scores received from the iVantage Hospital Strength INDEX™. The INDEX is the industry’s most comprehensive rating of US acute care hospitals, and the only one to include the country’s 1,300 CAHs. The results recognize that the Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals provide a safety net to communities across rural America – measuring them across 62 different performance metrics, including quality, outcomes, patient perspective, affordability, population risk and efficiency.
“Ministry Health Care is proud of the efforts of its physicians and associates who have contributed to Ministry Good Samaritan and all of our CAHs achieving this designation,” said Dan Neufelder, President and CEO of Ministry Health Care. “This honor takes into account several important performance metrics that are key drivers of high quality care and are the result of hard work on many levels of our operations.”
“Rural healthcare deserves the same performance analysis as all provider performance. It plays a vital role for communities across America, serving nearly 80 million people. The services provided in rural America are similar to those needed in any major metropolitan area, yet the volumes and economic resources provide little economies of scale, making for little benefit from scale. These top 100 Critical Access Hospitals exhibit a focused concern for their community benefits and needs, regardless of scale, reimbursement and people’s ability to pay,” said Michael Topchik, senior vice president of iVantage Health Analytics.
Ministry Good Samaritan Health Center is a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital that provides primary and specialty health care services to Merrill and rural Lincoln County. It features a 24-hour emergency department, urgent care, inpatient care and surgery plus direct access to imaging, laboratory and rehabilitation services.