Fond Du Lac Times

Watertown Regional Medical Center has been recognized as one of four ScionHealth-owned hospitals to receive the "Platinum Award" for 2024. This accolade is part of ScionHealth's National Quality Strategy (NQS), which aims to improve patient care, safety, and satisfaction across its facilities.

"The ScionHealth National Quality Strategy provides challenging metrics and an abundance of best practices to help each hospital build upon their culture of continuous improvement that is so critical to quality care," stated Richard Keddington, CEO of Watertown Regional Medical Center. He expressed pride in the achievement, emphasizing the dedication of his team in delivering exceptional patient outcomes.

The Platinum Award was also given to Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center in South Carolina, Kindred Hospital Clear Lake in Texas, and Kindred Hospital Paramount in California. These hospitals excelled in quality performance among all ScionHealth hospitals.

Russell Pigg, President of ScionHealth’s Community Hospital Division, praised Watertown Regional for its consistent high performance since ScionHealth's establishment. "This Platinum Award is another well-deserved honor to add to the hospital’s growing list of accolades," he remarked.

The recognition comes on top of other honors for Watertown Regional, including an "A" grade for safety from the Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades' Patient Safety Excellence Award. Additionally, Christine “Chris” Kelsey, RN at Watertown Regional was honored with ScionHealth’s Monarch Caring and Community Award.

ScionHealth's National Quality Strategy assesses hospitals based on six domains: effective care, efficiency, equity in healthcare access, patient-centeredness, safety measures, and timeliness. Each domain includes specific metrics aimed at enhancing overall healthcare delivery.

Dean French, Chief Medical Officer at ScionHealth highlighted the program's role in fostering continuous improvement across their network: “The program is specific, measurable, and adaptive – the continuous improvement and best practice-sharing it encourages from within our family of hospitals positively impacts the entire organization."

Watertown Regional Medical Center has been serving southeast Wisconsin for over 115 years with a range of services including emergency care and specialized medical fields like orthopedics and neurology. It operates as a joint venture between Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation and ScionHealth.