By adopting strategic quality initiatives, Northern Maine Medical Center has been able to realize consistent improvements across the continuum of health care. The national recognition earned (see listing below) is testimony to the truly exceptional employees who share a common vision to make a difference in the lives of the patients in their care.
In early 2018, Northern Maine Medical Center embarked on a journey to becoming a High Reliability Organization. NMMC has adopted the philosophy defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which defines High Reliability Organizations as those who utilize systems thinking to evaluate and design for safety, but are keenly aware that safety is an emergent, rather than a static, property. New threats to safety continuously emerge in healthcare, uncertainty is endemic, and no two accidents are exactly alike. Thus, high reliability organizations work to create an environment in which potential problems are anticipated, detected early, and virtually always responded to early enough to prevent catastrophic consequences. This mindset is supported by five characteristic ways of thinking: preoccupation with failure; reluctance to simplify explanations for operations, successes, and failures; sensitivity to operations (situation awareness); deference to frontline expertise; and commitment to resilience. To learn more about national healthcare safety initiatives visit https://www.ahrq.gov/
2019, 2020 Awarded an ‘A’ grade for safety by The Leapfrog Group
An ‘A’ grade for safety is a national distinction, recognizing Northern Maine Medical Center’s achievements for protecting patients from harm and providing safer healthcare. The Leapfrog Group, an independent national watchdog organization driven by employers and other purchasers of healthcare, is committed to improving healthcare quality and safety for consumers and purchasers. Developed under the guidance of a national Expert Panel, the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses twenty-eight measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public. The transparent hospital performance reports provide consumers with the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions.
To see NMMC’s full grade details, to learn how employers can help and to access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit hospitalsafetygrade.org and follow The Leapfrog Group on Twitter and Facebook.
2018 & 2019 Top Rural Hospital in the nation by The Leapfrog Group
Regarded as the nation’s preeminent quality hospitals, the top honor is given to the highest performing hospitals on each year’s Leapfrog Hospital Survey and features hospitals in four categories: General, Rural, Teaching and Children’s. NMMC earned the distinction in the Rural Hospital category.The highly sought-after, competitive award is based on performance across many areas of hospital care, including preventing infections, reducing C-sections, use of technology to prevent errors, surgical quality, and leadership policies and practices. The scoring is extremely comprehensive, utilizing twenty eight national performance measures to evaluate individual facilities in six domains of quality: inpatient care management, inpatient surgeries, pediatric care, medication safety, maternity care, and infections. In addition to satisfying the quantitative criteria, hospitals must also meet the Committee’s qualitative requirements for overall excellence, which includes a review of data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and other publicly available information pertaining to the hospital.
2018 Press Ganey -Pinnacle of Excellence Award
The Pinnacle of Excellence Award recognizes top-performing clients from health care organizations nationwide on the basis of extraordinary achievement and consistently high levels of excellence for at least three years in Clinical Quality Performance. Press Ganey bestows the award using twenty-six clinical quality measures for inpatient, outpatient and OB indicators for the years 2016 and 2017. The organizations with the highest overall performance score in each of the three bed size categories are awarded the honor. NMMC received the top award in the country for organizations of one hundred beds or less. The Press Ganey Pinnacle of Excellence Award is a highly regarded symbol of achievement in the health care industry.
Press Ganey pioneered the health care performance improvement movement more than thirty years ago. The company works with more than 33,000 health care facilities in its mission to reduce patient suffering and enhance caregiver resilience to improve the overall safety, quality and experience of care.
2018 & 2019 -DOUBLE 5-star recognition from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
2020 5-star recognition from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Northern Maine Medical Center was informed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that it has earned a DOUBLE 5-star recognition. NMMC is rated 5-star by our patients AND for our performance in the following clinical quality measures:
Mortality
Readmissions
Complications
Imaging efficiency
Unplanned Hospital Visits
Process of care
Healthcare Associated Infections
Patient Satisfaction
9% of hospitals across the United States earn five stars (337)
5 Hospitals in Maine earned five stars
2 Hospitals in Maine received a Double 5-Star Rating
2016 & 2017 Women’s Choice Award for America’s Best Emergency Care
This award was earned as a result of consistently ranking among the best performance for seven Medicare and Medicaid measures of quality out of 3600 hospitals reporting. NMMC is one of two hospitals in the state of Maine to receive this award.
This coveted credential places NMMC in the top two percent for Emergency Care, which was achieved by 373 hospitals, less than ten percent of the 3,800 emergency rooms that report data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
2017, 2018, & 2019 Top 20 Rural Community Hospital in the US
Northern Maine Medical Center scored best among hospitals who 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 perspectives, costs, charges and financial stability. NMMC has earned the prestigious award a third consecutive year. Less than 1% of hospitals nationwide earn the distinction more than once and LESS than 1% of hospitals earn it in consecutive years. We are so proud of all of our employees who pursue excellence for our patients every day!
2018 & 2019 -Top 100 SafeCare Hospital in the U.S.
Northern Maine Medical Center earned the distinction of being named to The Top 100 SafeCare Hospitals. This level of quality represents the nation’s top performing hospitals in evidence-based metrics for: low re-admissions, low infections, and low complications.
“Congratulations to Northern Maine Medical Center on achieving 100 SafeCare Hospitals.” ~ Yisrael Safeek, MD, MBA, CEO, The SafeCare Group
Northern Maine Medical Center ranks 36th in the U.S. Only 2% of hospitals earn the Top 100 distinction and the top 50, which includes NMMC, represent the top 1% in performance nationwide.
2015 -Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award – Presented annually, the award honors clients who consistently sustained performance in the top 5% of all Press Ganey clients for each reporting period during the course of one year. The award is a symbol of outstanding achievement in health care clinical quality.
2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 -Becker Healthcare Top 100 Hospital in America –The Becker’s editorial team selected hospitals for inclusion based on rankings and awards from such organizations as iVantage Health Analytics, Truven Health Analytics, Healthgrades, CareChex, the American Nurses Credentialing Center and the Leapfrog Group. Organizations included in Becker’s listing have earned recognition from one or more of these organizations.
2015 -Press Ganey Pinnacle of Excellence Award – NMMC was recognized as a top-performer in thirty nine clinical quality measures and received the highest overall score and consistency in quality performance. The recognition is based on extraordinary achievement and consistently high levels of excellence in clinical quality performance over a specified period of time.
2014 -Joint Commission Top Performer
2014 -Recognition was bestowed on NMMC by the Joint Commission as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for exemplary performance and for sustaining excellence in the treatment of pneumonia for the third year in a row. With the high risk of complication and death from pneumonia, it is imperative that patients receive the highest standard of care each and every time.
Birth Vaccination Honor Roll
NMMC was recognized by the Maine Immunization Action Coalition Birth Dose Honor Roll for attaining high coverage levels for administering the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth. NMMC is one of only three hospitals in the state of Maine, which achieved a 100% Hepatitis B vaccination rate in newborns. The national standard of care to prevent Hepatitis B virus infection in babies is to administer Hepatitis B vaccine to all newborns before they leave the hospital or birthing center.
To learn more, visit www.birthvaccination.org.
2012, 2013 -Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Hospital Honor Roll
For the fourth consecutive year Northern Maine Medical Center was named to the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Honor Roll. The Honor Roll recognizes adult, acute care hospitals whose performance was among the top 25% of those measured nationally on: clinical quality of care, patient experience and patient safety. Established clinical quality targets were exceeded in patients receiving care for heart attacks and in preventing healthcare associated infections. National targets were met during the reporting period of this award in regards to implementing practices that are known to prevent patient harm. As a result, zero surgical infections and zero urinary tract infections were reported.
Electronic physician ordering standards were also met which translates to safe medication prescribing practices.The honor was attained by not only meeting but also exceeding quality measures used during the reporting period.Hospitals are evaluated on processes of care in four categories: cardiac; pneumonia; surgery – preventing infections; and surgery – preventing complications. The results of patient surveys measuring patient hospital experiences are also included. CMS patient safety measures include results achieved in: healthcare associated infections, hospital acquired conditions and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) patient safety composite scores.
To learn more, visit www.harvardpilgrimhonorroll.org.
High Performing Preferred Hospital
NMMC was designated a preferred hospital by demonstrating the ability to meet higher standards for quality, using a common set of measures and lower unit costs. Top scores were attained in the areas of heart failure and medication safety. In addition to the higher quality standards, the financial advantages for individuals receiving inpatient or outpatient surgical services from a Preferred Hospital Facility or Hospital of Distinction can be significant for eligible patients.
2016 & 2017 Maine Tobacco-Free Hospital Network Gold Star Standards of Excellence Recognition
2018, 2019, 2020 -Platinum level recognition
The Gold Star Standards of Excellence recognizes achievement in compliance to the ten best practice Gold Star Standards defined by the Maine Tobacco-Free Hospital Network. Some of the best practices included in the ten standards are: reducing tobacco use and creating tobacco-free areas for patients, employees and visitors through evidence-based strategies; providing training, policies, and assistance to quit and must not support or accept any contributions from tobacco companies.
To learn more, go to www.tobaccofreehospitals.org.
2016, 2017 -Organ Tissue Bronze Award
2018, 2019 -Organ Tissue Silver Award
The Bronze Medal level of distinction was attained for work done in support of the National Hospital Organ Donation Campaign. The work is crucial to the success of the Campaign for multiple reasons. More than 122,000 people are awaiting an organ transplant in the U.S. Each day, seventy nine people receive a life-saving organ transplant but still, eighteen people die each day while waiting for an organ. Watch this Spring for a community event which will be held to further educate the public about the importance of organ and tissue donation.
To learn more, go to www.organtissuecampaign.gov.
2014 -BEST Score in Medication Safety
NMMC has received a ‘Best’ score in the 2014 Medication Safety Spotlight Survey. Medication Safety is based on a survey developed by a committee of pharmacists and nurses from the Maine Healthcare Management Coalition (MHMC) member hospitals. The survey addresses systems in place in hospitals that have been shown to reduce medication errors. To receive a ‘Best’ rating, a hospital must score between 80 -100 points. NMMC has been participating in the survey for eight years and each year has consistently achieved a ‘Best’ score. This year, NMMC achieved a score of 91.375. When compared to the thirty five acute care hospitals in Maine who completed the survey, the average score was 86.5.
Survey results may be viewed on the getbettermaine.org website.