DARLINGTON — Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County in Darlington was recently named one of the Top 20 Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) for Best Practice Recipient — Patient Satisfaction in the country.
The Top 20 CAHs, including Memorial Hospital of Lafayette (MHLC), scored best among CAHs as determined by the Chartis Center for Rural Health for Patient Satisfaction. The rankings were recently announced by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA). An awards ceremony was held during NRHA’s Critical Access Hospital Conference in September in Kansas City, Mo. Kathy Kuepers, MHLC CEO, was in person to receive this prestigious award.
“This award is a testament to our entire staff. From the minute a patient walks in the door we strive to provide excellent health care service. It’s a team effort and I am very humbled to accept this award on behalf of MHLC,” Kuepers said.
The top 20 CAHs have achieved success in overall performance based on a composite rating from eight indices of strength: inpatient market share, outpatient market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspective, cost, charge, and finance. This group was selected from the Chartis Center for Rural Health’s 2024 Top 100 CAH list, which was released earlier this year. Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County received that recognition in February 2024.
The Top 20 CAH best practice recipients have achieved success in one of two key areas of performance:
Quality index: A rating of hospital performance based on the percentile rank across rural-relevant process of care measures.
Patient perspective index: A rating of hospital performance based on the percentile rank across all 10.
“Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County is proud of the efforts of the physicians and staff who have contributed to our hospital achieving this designation,” said Dr. Ian Stormont, Chief Medical Officer. “This award reaffirms our theme of ‘Caring for you and Caring about you’. Our results as a Top 20 CAHs means our community can count on us to deliver the services they need now and in the future.”
