FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 26, 2017
See PDF version of the press release.
Alaska Long-term Care Facilities Receive Quality Health Care Awards
(Anchorage, AK)— Mountain-Pacific Quality Health, the Medicare Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization for Alaska, is proud to announce the winners of the 2017 Nursing Home Quality Awards. Mountain-Pacific awards three different levels of recognition, and seven of Alaska’s long-term care facilities met the criteria to receive these awards.
Recognition of Quality Excellence Award
- Cordova Community Medical Center Long Term Care, Cordova
- Heritage Place, Soldotna
- Sitka Community Hospital Long Term Care, Sitka
Recognition of Quality Achievement Award
- Denali Center Long-Term Care, Fairbanks
- PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center New Horizons Transitional Care, Ketchikan
- Petersburg Medical Center Long Term Care, Petersburg
- Wrangell Medical Center Long Term Care, Wrangell
Most Improved Award
- Sitka Community Hospital Long Term Care, Sitka
These seven facilities participate in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) National Nursing Home Quality Care Collaborative (NNHQCC) through Mountain-Pacific Quality Health. The NNHQCC’s goals are to instill quality and performance improvement practices, eliminate healthcare-acquired conditions and improve resident satisfaction. As a measure to reflect achievement of these goals, CMS created a “composite score” system. The composite score is a way to assess quality of care in long-term care facilities and is based on 13 publicly reported quality measures—the lower the score, the better.
The awards are based on each facility’s composite score, their licensure with Alaska’s state survey agency and their certification with CMS. Winners of the Recognition of Quality Excellence Award had to attain a composite score of 7.0 percent or less least seven times during the 2016 calendar year. Facilities who received the Recognition of Quality Achievement Award
earned a 7.0 percent or less at least once during 2016. Sitka Community Hospital’s Long Term Care Unit received the Most Improved Award for achieving the greatest reduction in rate in its
overall composite score for 2016.
“High-quality, resident-centered care is a commitment that has to be made every day,” said Sharon Scudder, Mountain-Pacific’s state director for Alaska. “These facilities work very hard to
provide the best possible care for their residents, and we are pleased to recognize that ongoing dedication and effort with these well earned awards.”
All Alaska’s long-term care facilities are eligible for the Nursing Home Quality Awards.
About Mountain-Pacific—Mountain-Pacific is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation and holds federal and state contracts that allow them to oversee the quality of care for Medicare and Medicaid members. Mountain-Pacific works within its four-state region (Montana, Wyoming, Alaska and Hawaii, which includes the U.S. Pacific Territories of Guam and American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) to help improve the delivery of health care and the systems that provide it. Mountain-Pacific’s goal is to increase access to high-quality
health care that is affordable, safe and of value to the patients they serve. www.mpqhf.org
