Health Strong Award goes to PCH for excellence

Putnam County Hospital was recently recognized by iVantage Health Analytics as a HealthStrong Award winner for excellence in efficiency, reflecting top quartile performance among all acute care hospitals in the nation.

iVantage Health announced the latest HealthStrong Award winners at the annual meeting of the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health in Asheville, N.C.

HealthStrong Awards are based on the Hospital Strength Index, a national ratings program developed by iVantage to recognize top-performing hospitals based on key metrics critical to success in the new healthcare marketplace.

The Hospital Strength Index ranks more than 4,400 U.S. general acute care hospitals, including the more than 1,300 critical access hospitals.

The index is based on eight performance categories, measuring 56 different performance metrics. The index offers hospital executives, trustees and boards of directors an objective way to measure their relative performance internally and among their peers.

Small and rural hospitals play a critical role in providing efficient and effective healthcare that is comparable to its larger urban counterparts, an iVantage Health spokesman said.

"Rural hospitals have new and difficult demands that can only be managed with better information. The Hos-pital Strength Index reflects the multiple challenges of running a hospital by incorporating the measures on which the industry has worked to gain consensus and standardization," John Morrow, executive vice president of iVantage Health Analytics Inc., said.

iVantage Health Analytics is a privately held company serving more than 500 hospitals across the United States. iVantage Health provides comprehensive and objective information products to help hospitals and health systems improve performance.