Melissa Memorial Hospital personnel display a Certificate of Excellence awarded to the facility by Colorado Rural Health Center. Pictured in the front row, from the left, are Mary Kay Knode, Jennifer Hughes, Dan Lakandili, Karen Hooker, Kim O’Neil, Erica Long and Armando Castaneda. In the back, from left, are Jayden Miracle, Jimmie Bailey III, Elly Bailey, Sherry Stephens and Jo Palser.
MMH ranked in the top three for critical access hospitals
Colorado Rural Health Center recognized Holyoke’s Melissa Memorial Hospital recently as one of the top three of 32 critical access hospitals in the state. In this ranking, the health center factored inpatient and outpatient measures, a consumer assessment of the facility, and the effective communication of patient information.
Karen Hooker, quality director at the hospital, didn’t expect for her facility to be recognized so high up the list. When she was called to the stage at the 2022 Annual Rural Health Conference in Colorado Springs, she said, the experience proved “pretty darn exciting.”
The health center’s Certificate of Excellence, according to Hooker, recognizes “the quality work...done in the last year for improving patient safety and taking good care of our patients.”
One aspect of this, she said, involved the hospital’s “antibiotic stewardship”: in other words, they didn’t proscribe antibiotics unless they were necessary and – even then – tailored them to target specific organisms. By not overproscribing, she continued, patients would have less chance for any diseases to develop a resistance to antibiotics.
The hospital also pushed local residents to take the influenza vaccine, she said, lessening the number of flu cases. Those who did get sick, she continued, experienced lighter symptoms.
She detailed further efforts by the hospital that allowed personnel to respond quickly to heart attacks with medication and transfer patients in need of more specialized care to a “higher” facility.
“If you come in with a stroke, we don’t want to keep you in our ER for five, six hours,” she said. “We want to get you to the tertiary hospital so you can get the care you need.”
The health center mentioned other factors considered, such as cleanliness, quietness, responsiveness and the willingness of patients to recommend the hospital.
Also ranked in the top three were Southeast Colorado Hospital in Springfield and – just 60 miles away – Yuma District Hospital.