Lakes Regional Healthcare has been named one of the Top 100 Rural & Community Hospitals in the United States for the fourth year in a row by The Chartis Center for Rural Health. Regarded as one of the industry’s most significant designations of performance excellence, the annual Top 100 Rural & Community Hospitals award is based upon the results of the Hospital Strength INDEX®.
Lakes Regional Healthcare President and CEO Jason Harrington said, “Top 100 status is a real indicator of how proactive we’ve been regarding performance improvement in areas such as quality, outcomes, patient safety, market share, and finance. We’re proud of this and other achievements we’ve received in recent years.”
Over the course of the last 12 years, the INDEX has grown to become the industry’s most comprehensive and objective assessment of rural hospital performance. Based entirely on public data and utilizing 36 independent indicators, the INDEX assesses rural hospitals across eight pillars of performance, including market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspective, cost, charge, and financial efficiency. The INDEX framework is widely used across the nation by independent rural hospitals, health systems with rural foot prints and state offices of rural health, which provide access to INDEX analytics through grant-funded initiatives.
“The Top 100 program continues to illuminate strategies and innovation for delivering higher quality care and better outcomes within rural communities,” said Michael Topchik, National Leader of The Chartis Center for Rural Health. “We are delighted to be able to spotlight the efforts of these facilities through the INDEX framework.”