Cass Regional Medical Center | Wellness Matters | Spring 2021

Wellness Matters | Spring 2021 7 Customer service • As measured by overall rating of care, our patient satisfaction scores, and percentile rankings against national benchmarks, improved in every area over the prior year. Areas surveyed include the inpatient units, Emergency Department, outpatient surgery, outpatient services (test and treatment), and medical practices (including our family medicine and specialists clinics). • We saw a significant increase in our physician engagement scores, placing Cass Regional in the top 15% of facilities that participated in the survey on the question of "being a great place to practice medicine." Report • We purchased equipment to test for COVID-19 both at the hospital and at our family medicine clinics. We tested 4,191 individuals, 363 of whom were positive for the virus. • We worked with Harrisonville Family Medicine to implement a COVID-19 specimen collection site at Rock Haven Medical Mall, which was used to test all pre- procedural (surgery, GI and Sleep Lab) patients and some family medicine clinic patients. Through this site, 1,902 individuals were tested and 146 were diagnosed with COVID-19. • We purchased and installed a cardiology picture archive and communication system (PACS) that allows cardiology studies to be read remotely by cardiologists, significantly improving turnaround time for studies such as nuclear stress tests and ultrasound images of the heart. • We completed the final stages of our information systems consolidation project, which now entails a single clinical information system across the entire organization (hospital and clinics). • In response to the pandemic, we launched a telehealth visit platform across all our clinics, allowing many clinic visits to be conducted remotely for patients who were unable to attend in person. Quality • We continued to show strong performance in the Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services (CMS) star quality rating system, which evaluates a hospital’s overall performance on inpatient satisfaction, patient safety, outcomes of care, readmissions and efficiency measures. Cass Regional received four out of five stars. We were one of 27 facilities within the state of Missouri to be rated at this level. • Through efforts across the organization, we achieved our goal to reduce our Harm Index score by 51% over the prior year, with a goal of getting to zero over time. • To enhance patient, visitor and staff safety during the pandemic, we added equipment such as air purifying systems and temperature screening devices, and employed patient safety assistants (screeners). • We worked with the Cass County Health Department to offer and provide staff for weekly drive-up COVID-19 testing clinics on the Cass Regional campus. In 2020, 28 clinics were held, 1,911 people were tested (at no cost to the patient) and 356 individuals were diagnosed with COVID-19. • Through our relationship with HCA, we were able to have our patients with COVID-19 cared for in dedicated units at Research Medical Center and Centerpoint Medical Center, thus improving safety for patients admitted to Cass Regional for reasons other than COVID-19.