Rumford, Bridgton in High-Quality Group
The federal government confirmed last week what Mainers have known for a long time—their rural hospitals are among the best in the nation. The state of Maine was honored with a national Quality Performance Award, recognizing high levels of quality by its Critical Access Hospitals. That put Maine among the top 10 top-performing states.
Rumford and Bridgton Hospitals, previously recognized by the Leapfrog Group as two of the top 17 rural hospitals in the nation, are among Maine’s 18 critical access facilities. For the providers, nurses and staff at Rumford and Bridgton, the recognition by the Health Resources and Services Administration was validation of their hard and consistent work delivering top-quality care to the communities they serve.
“Our commitment is to providing the right care in the right place at the right time, every time,” said Peter Wright, FACHE, president of both Bridgton and Rumford Hospitals. “Maine has a long-standing tradition of having one of the highest quality, lower-cost healthcare systems in the country. This recognition proves that to be true.”
The 2019 Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Project (MBQIP) Quality Performance Awards went to Maine, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Utah, Alabama, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The government created MBQIP to promote high quality care at rural hospitals with 25 or fewer beds. Participating hospitals voluntarily report quality measures, share data, and take on quality improvement initiatives. Of those engaging in improvement initiatives, 72% have improved outcomes on the reported measures.
These states also built on their previous successes by investing funding from HRSA’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) on individual quality projects and working collaboratively with other hospitals to share best practices.
“We’re happy to work with the states on this effort,” said Tom Morris, FORHP Associate Administrator. “They’ve done a great job showing that CAHs can be national leaders in quality improvement and that results in better care in rural communities.”
