North Big Horn named in Top 20 rural hospitals nationwide

Once again, North Big Horn Hospital has been listed among the best of the best critical access hospitals across the nation. Hospital CEO Eric Connell received a letter of notification this week that the hospital is ranked in the Top 20 of more than 1,300 rural hospitals across the nation.

Top 20 awards are given by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA), an industry group that focuses on advocacy, health care quality and safety. The award is based on data collected by the Chartis organization in eight categories: inpatient market share, outpatient market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspective, cost, charge and finance. North Big Horn won in the top 20 ranking based on quality.

“It’s an awesome huge deal for our team, and if you had to choose any of those items to be at the top of the class, quality is probably one of the more meaningful ones,” Connell said. “That represents good results for our patients, so we’re really pleased about it.” 

If the name Chartis sounds familiar, that is because the hospital recently earned a coveted spot among the most recent Chartis designees ranked in the Top 100 critical access hospitals across the country. Critical access hospitals typically have fewer than 25 beds and serve rural communities. They are required to conform to specific standards of quality.

The hospital’s quality director, Catherine Herman, is tasked with compiling the mandatory quality data submitted to Chartis, as well as survey data for the emergency room, clinic and operating room. She said she couldn’t do her job without the cooperation of a very motivated staff, adding that she takes all feedback very seriously.

“I knew we were doing well, but I didn’t know we were doing that well,” Herman said. “I’ve been in this role for three years now, and it was still shocking to see how well we did.”

This is the first time NBHH has made the NRHA Top 20 list and the Chartis Top 100 list.

“It shows that we’re doing well, but we will still keep improving,” Herman said.

Though NRHA only designates the Top 20, North Big Horn Hospital scored in the 100^th percentile among those 20.

“That means nobody had a higher score than North Big Horn,” Connell said.

Connell attributed the hospital’s high level of quality to the staff.

“We have the most caring, compassionate, professional staff of any hospital,” Connell said. “I would put our team up against any other team in healthcare. This recognition is a testament to all of the work that they do for our patients and this is really about them, about the patients. They expect us to have high quality healthcare and we’re happy to bring this recognition home and share that with them. We’re doing our very best to provide good quality, every time. 

“It’s not about the award itself. It’s not about the numbers. It represents that we’re doing some things right. It’s nice to know we are being recognized by our peers in the top hospitals in the country.”

Connell said, though the award is for the hospital, he credits the entire district for the recognition.

“In an organization like ours, our clinic patients are the same as our hospital patients and our care center patients receive hospital services, too,” he said. “So, we feel like this is a team award. Yes, it is a recognition of the hospital, but a rising tide lifts all boats. So, we feel very good about sharing the recognition with everyone in the organization. We’re one team. We’re one organization.”

Connell said he wishes there was a fire truck big enough to haul all 250 hospital district employees through town, the way high school sports teams are honored when they win a championship.

“This is like winning the state championship in basketball,” he said. “That’s how excited we are when we get this type of recognition.

“We’re just glad that the community has been so supportive of our facility and that people choose to come see us when they need a doctor. Our community deserves nothing less than the absolute best we can offer. We’re not done. We’re going to keep working to improve and hope to bring home more recognitions like this in the future.”