Clinch Valley Medical Center Named Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate

RICHLANDS, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Clinch Valley Medical Center (CVMC) 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.

"Our hospital is committed to establishing safe, reliable, high-quality standards of care to ensure that members of our community can be confident in the service and care they receive when they come through our doors," said Peter Mulkey, chief executive officer of Clinch Valley Medical Center. "Earning the esteemed Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate designation further demonstrates our dedication to putting our patients and their families first, and I am so grateful for the hard work of each and every member of our team who has helped us reach this milestone."

CVMC is a 175-bed hospital that has served people in the Richlands, Va., community and surrounding areas for more than 75 years. To achieve Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate designation, the CVMC 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 CVMC leadership team instituted daily executive patient safety rounding to ensure that leaders at every level of the organization engage with staff, physicians, patients and families about quality and patient safety. CVMC also implemented bedside shift reporting to help ensure clear communication, reduce the risk of errors and maintain consistency of care during shift changes. Bedside shift reporting is an effective method for transferring information from one provider to another, while also involving the patient in discussions about their health, progress and treatment plan.

Additionally, CVMC implemented a Safety Collaborative designed to help prevent potential healthcare-acquired conditions. As a result of this effort, the hospital has achieved zero incidences of central line-associated blood stream infections (CLABSI), clostridium difficile (C. diff), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and post-operative infections, among other conditions, in the last 12 months. CVMC also established a community collaboration called the "Bridge Program" to help reduce readmissions. The program connects patients with various community resources and support to help ensure a smooth transition from the hospital to the home setting.

"LifePoint's operations are defined by our mission of Making Communities Healthier and our relentless pursuit of quality," said David Dill, president and chief operating officer of LifePoint Health. "By becoming a Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate, Clinch Valley Medical Center has demonstrated its commitment to putting patients first and keeping quality front and center. As only the third LifePoint facility in the country to earn designation to date, it has set the bar high for our hospitals that will follow in its footsteps along this quality journey."

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 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 what they do.

About Clinch Valley Medical Center

Clinch Valley Medical Center in Richlands, Va., is a 175-bed acute care hospital, which offers comprehensive cancer services; specialty care for the heart, lungs and vascular system; emergency services; inpatient and outpatient physical rehabilitation; sleep studies; skilled nursing; pediatrics; obstetrics and advanced diagnostics. More information is available at www.clinchvalleymedicalcenter.com.

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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