Rapides Regional Medical Center Celebrates 5 Units of Distinction

Five Rapides Regional Medical Center nursing units were recently recognized as being in the Top 5 percent and Top 10 percent of 490 Medical-Surgical Units around the country.

The 2015 HCA Unit of Distinction Award is given to the top performing Medical-Surgical Departments within HCA. The award recognizes exemplary performance in leadership, professional practice, operations and outcomes. Twenty-five units were among HCA’s Top 5 percent and 27 units made the Top 10 percent.

The five units recognized include:

“This is a strong statement of the excellence of nursing and quality of care patients receive at Rapides Regional Medical Center,” said Diane Fulton, RN, Chief Nursing Officer. “And it’s not just an award for the nurses. It’s an award for everyone who provides care for these patients. No other hospital in our company had five units make the list. This is extraordinary."

In preparing for this award, nurses were given the opportunity to obtain specialty certification in their Medical-Surgical areas of expertise. More than 1,000 nurses were certified through the program. At RRMC, 22 of our nurses became certified in 2015.

The award also considers patient satisfaction rates for nurse communication and responsiveness, quality numbers, RN turnover, prevention of hospital-acquired conditions and patient immunization rates.

“Quality is the biggest factor for this award,” said Jason E. Cobb, FACHE, Rapides Regional Medical Center’s chief executive officer.” “But another huge factor is patient satisfaction. The Unit of Distinction Award looks specifically at patient satisfaction with nurse communication and responsiveness – and the numbers for these units pushed them into the Top 5 and Top 10 percent. The overall patient satisfaction rates in these five units continue to climb.”