Poudre Valley Health System

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
2008 Award Recipient, Health Care

Highest-Ranking Official*
Rulon F. Stacey, Ph.D., FACHE
President/CEO

Public Affairs Contact

*At time of award 

Type of Work: Poudre Valley Health System (PVHS) is a locally owned, private not-for-profit health care organization serving residents of northern Colorado, western Nebraska and southern Wyoming. Founded in 1925, PVHS provides a full spectrum of health care services through two hospitals (Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colo., and the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Colo.) and a network of clinics and care facilities.

Revenues: $330.5 million
Workforce: 4,082
Location: Fort Collins, Colo.

Highlights

• PVHS patient loyalty ranks in the top 1 percent of U.S. hospitals, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

• Avatar honored Poudre Valley Hospital with its Five Star Inpatient Care Award for the highest inpatient satisfaction score among 300 hospitals nationally. In 2007, Avatar named the Medical Center of the Rockies as the Exemplary Service Overall Best Performer and ranked the hospital among the top 12 nationally for customer satisfaction.

• PVHS demonstrates high levels of performance in many process measures for clinical assessments, care and discharge. PVHS is consistently in or near the top 10 percent of national performance standards for treating acute myocardial infarction, heart failure and pneumonia.

• PVHS has consistently maintained competitive health care costs when compared to local competitors who have a similar patient base and to the average health care costs in the Denver metropolitan area, which is the PVHS secondary service area. In 2006, the average PVHS charge was $2,000 lower than its main competitor and $7,000 lower than the Denver metro rate.

• The PVHS score on the Financial Flexibility Index (a composite of seven financial ratios measuring financial stability) determined by Ingenix, a provider of comparative clinical and financial results, has approached or surpassed the top 10 percent nationally for six years.

• Overall physician satisfaction ranks in the national 99th percentile, according to Gallup.

• A community case management program that pairs advance practice nurses and social workers with high-risk, chronically ill patients decreased emergency visits annually by 50 percent and resulted in more than $850,000 savings for the past three years.

• PVHS extensively involves customers and stakeholders through a systematic voice-of-the-customer (VOC) process to provide guidance for strategic planning, goal setting and improvement initiatives. For example, significant community, staff and stakeholder input was incorporated into the planning and building of Poudre Valley Health System's newest hospital, the Medical Center of the Rockies. This included aspects such as the layout of the emergency rooms, the views from the patient room windows (with the majority facing the mountains), healing gardens, and family amenities such as showers and kitchens.

• On a monthly basis, PVHS collects and analyzes input from various customer groups and multiple listening methods for use in strategy development, measuring performance and identifying opportunities for improvement. Care units utilize patient feedback for goal setting and performance measurement, and post the comments on the PVHS intranet to engage the entire workforce.

• PVHS works with local community leaders and customers to identify and address specific health needs in the region. Among the community wellness, education and preventive health programs in action are ones for heart disease, prenatal issues (such as low birth weight), child safety and injury avoidance. Total community support surpassed $110 million—or greater than 25 percent of net patient revenue—in 2007.

• PVHS senior leaders and Board of Directors use the Global Path to Success (GPS) model to deploy the system's mission, vision and values. Direct, two-way communication between management and staff includes an open door policy, access to management home phone numbers and an exceptionally high level of face-to-face contact with leadership. Senior leaders maintain a culture of celebration to reinforce high performance, customer focus and achievement of organizational goals.

• In 2008, PVHS received the Peak Performance Award, Colorado's highest award for performance excellence, marking the second time in five years for the honor. Also in 2008, Modern Healthcare Magazine named PVHS as one of "America's 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare."

• The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) awarded Poudre Valley Hospital its "Magnet Designation for Nursing Excellence" in 2000 and again in 2004. The hospital was the first in the Rocky Mountain region and the 18th nationally to receive this designation. Based on its National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators, the American Nurses Association named Poudre Valley Hospital the nation's number one hospital for nursing quality.

• In March 2008, Thomson Reuters, a national health care consulting firm, named Poudre Valley Hospital as a "100 Top Hospital" for the fifth year in a row.

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