Rapides Regional Medical Center Nets Two Coveted Awards

Rapides Regional Medical Center (RRMC) in Alexandria, Louisiana and one of its nurses, Sheila Hay, RN, have each received top honors in recognition of high quality patient care.

Hay received the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. The award, presented in collaboration with The American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), recognizes “the super-human efforts nurses perform every day.” Some of the criteria used in determining the DAISY award recipient are accountability, compassion, intuition, integrity and demonstrating regard for patients’ wishes.

More than 300 hospitals around the country participate in the DAISY award program administered by the DAISY Foundation. The foundation was established by the family of a patient who died a premature death from complications of an auto-immune disease. The award is the family’s collective “thank-you” to nurses everywhere for the difference they make in the lives of patients and families.

 “I’m no different from any other nurse on our floor,” said Hay, who spent nine years in nursing school while working fulltime as a hairdresser. “It’s just old-school nursing. We were taught to anticipate whatever the patients or families need and to meet those needs. As far as I’m concerned, all of the 3A nurses deserve it.”

Tina Coker, RN, MSN, MBA, chief nursing officer at Rapides said, “We are proud to be among the hospitals participating in the DAISY award program….Nurses are heroes everyday….It’s important that our nurses know their work is highly valued and The DAISY Foundation provides one way for us to do that.”

 In addition to Hays’ DAISY award recognition RRMC was recently awarded the Platinum Level 2008 Louisiana Hospital Quality Award from Louisiana Health Care Review Inc. This is the second consecutive year that RRMC has platinum award.

“RRMC was one of 30 hospitals in the state that was on top in improvement of core measures,” said Babson, Fresh, MD, associate medical director. “There were 93 hospitals that received awards. It’s much more difficult for a large hospital to receive one of these awards than a smaller hospital, because of the volume of patients,” he said.

The award recognizes facilities actively engaged in improving care in one or more of the following areas:

·        Heart attack

·        Congestive heart failure

·        Pneumonia

·        Surgical care

To be eligible for the award, hospitals much have achieved improvement of at least 25 percent for each applicable category or maintained a high level of performance (greater than 90 percent) during the calendar year.  The categories measured for the awards have been designated as national health care priorities by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Staff members from RRMC work with quality improvement specialists from Louisiana Health Care Review Inc. (LHCR) and use proven, evidence-based practices to improve patient care.

“LHCR is pleased to recognize hospitals like Rapides Regional for achieving improvement in patient care. More importantly, we know that utilizing proven standards of care can save lives and we applaud the work of this hospital team for their dedication to quality patient care for the people of their community,” said Gary Curtis, LHCR chief executive officer.