Colorado Plains Medical Center Named Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate

Hospital recognized for achievements in patient and family engagement, quality care and patient safety

Colorado Plains Medical Center (CPMC) today announced that it has been named a Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate. This designation recognizes hospitals within the LifePoint Health system that have enrolled in the LifePoint National Quality Program and succeeded in transforming their culture of safety and achieving high standards of quality care, performance improvement and patient engagement.

"Colorado Plains Medical Center has always been committed to providing safe, high-quality care close to home for the members of the Fort Morgan community," said Gene O'Hara, chief executive officer of CPMC. "Earning the esteemed Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate designation further demonstrates our dedication to ensuring that quality remains the undisputed top priority at our facility. I am so appreciative of the efforts of each and every member of our team who worked hard to reach this important milestone."

CPMC is a 50-bed facility serving people in the Fort Morgan, Colorado, community and surrounding areas. To achieve Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate designation, the Colorado Plains team worked to implement a number of best practices and launch new initiatives to engage patients and families, enhance patient safety and improve quality care.

For example, the hospital worked to reduce the occurrence of patient falls by implementing processes that are unique to its patient population, such as a "WAR zone" protocol, which aims to keep the patient "within an arm's reach" at all times. CPMC also successfully reduced its readmission rate, in part, by working closely with patients and their families to develop the best possible discharge plan to keep patients well and out of the hospital. Another important part of CPMC's journey to achieve Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate designation involved focusing on enhancing clinical documentation, improving management of patients' chronic conditions and developing relationships with community agencies and organizations that can provide additional care for these individuals. The hospital team also established a Patient and Family Advisory Council to help further improve the patient experience.

"Through the LifePoint National Quality Program, all LifePoint facilities have embarked on an important journey to constantly improve their level of quality care and patient safety," said David Dill, president and chief operating officer of LifePoint Health. "From day one, everyone at Colorado Plains Medical Center has made us incredibly proud with their enthusiasm for and commitment to this initiative, and, most importantly, they have kept their patients at the center of the process. We are delighted to recognize the team's hard work and look forward to everything they will accomplish as a Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate in the months and years ahead."

The LifePoint National Quality Program was created through a collaboration between LifePoint Health and Duke University Health System. When hospitals enroll in the program, they begin working with Duke and LifePoint quality coaches to evaluate and strengthen their quality programs and processes. Following an initial evaluation, the hospital creates a plan and begins to deploy changes that will help it achieve quality improvement benchmarks and establish long-term solutions to sustain its results.

In addition to evaluating common quality care and patient safety metrics, the LifePoint National Quality Program focuses on foundational elements required to sustain quality care, including committed leadership, systems to ensure continuous performance and process improvement, and a culture dedicated to safety. Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate designation denotes those hospitals that achieve a broad range of criteria in each of these areas and demonstrate a capacity to continuously measure and improve quality and patient safety.

About Colorado Plains Medical Center

CPMC is a 50-bed acute-care hospital, fully accredited by The Joint Commission. With a Level III Trauma Center, a 24-hour Emergency Room and many other services, the hospital chiefly serves a two-county area of 35,000. The hospital provides a comprehensive range of diagnostic imaging services including MRI, nuclear medicine, CT, radiography, ACR-certified mammography and ultrasound. Rehab services include physical, occupational and speech therapies. Other services include behavioral health, cardiopulmonary, surgery, lab, obstetrics, social services, dietary and sports medicine. It was established in 1952. More information about CPMC can be found on its website: www.ColoradoPlainsMedicalCenter.com or its Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/ColoradoPlainsMedicalCenter1.

About LifePoint Health

LifePoint Health LPNT is a leading healthcare company dedicated to Making Communities Healthier^®. Through its subsidiaries, it provides quality inpatient, outpatient and post-acute services close to home. LifePoint owns and operates community hospitals, regional health systems, physician practices, outpatient centers, and post-acute facilities in 22 states. It is the sole community healthcare provider in the majority of the non-urban communities it serves. More information about the company can be found at www.LifePointHealth.net.

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