Hospital Receives Bronze Award for Commitment to Excellence

IMEC has announced HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital of Effingham as a recipient of the 2018 Bronze Award for Commitment to Excellence.

"On behalf of the colleagues and Medical Staff of St. Anthony's, we are pleased to receive the 2018 ILPEx Bronze Award for Commitment to Excellence,” said Theresa Rutherford, HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital President and CEO. “This award is a demonstration of our hospital's teamwork and journey in elevating the care we provide.  It is an honor to be recognized for the promises made by our colleagues to provide patients exceptional care, quality, safety, and experience," she said. "We will use the report provided by the ILPEx Recognition Program to elevate our practice and continue our performance improvement journey."

The ILPEx Bronze Award for Commitment to Excellence is granted to those organizations that demonstrate systematic approaches that respond to the basic requirements of the Baldrige Framework for Performance Excellence criteria. A general improvement orientation must be evident in the organization, along with key approaches by senior leaders to guide and sustain the organization and prove the use of systematic approaches to improve key work processes. Additionally, the organization must report results for several areas that are important to the accomplishment of their mission.

Since 1875, HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital has provided for the health care needs of the residents of the Effingham community and the south-central region of Illinois. St. Anthony’s is one of 15 hospitals in Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS), a health care ministry with hospitals and multi­specialty medical groups in Illinois and Wisconsin. HSHS is sponsored by Hospital Sisters Ministries, and Hospital Sisters of St. Francis is the founding institute. St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital is a 133-bed licensed acute care facility, providing inpatient, ambulatory, home health and hospice, with more than 700 colleagues and over 70 physicians on its Medical Staff. St. Anthony’s approach to health care combines its Core Values of Respect, Care, Competence and Joy with the most modern technologies available today. Being honored by Illinois Performance Excellence is an example of the continuous quality improvements undertaken by St. Anthony’s, also seen in their achievement of The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for Advanced Certification for Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement, enhancing overall patient safety and experience, and increasing engagement with colleagues and medical staff.

“The pursuit of continuous improvement and quality excellence is vital for the success of a healthcare organization,” said Ben Krupowicz, Executive Director of the ILPEx Recognition Program.  “HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital exemplifies the idea that this program is about more than receiving an award.  The true benefits come from engaging all aspects of their organization to make improvements based on the feedback to their application and site visit.  The dedication of the St. Anthony’s team allows them to provide a higher level of care to their patients, staff and greater community.”

The 2018 Board of Examiners – comprised of 52 experts in business, education, health care and government – spent more than 2,000 hours assessing each applicant in seven categories: leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; operations focus; and results. The ILPEx Panel of Judges is responsible for validating the integrity of the ILPEx award process and determining recognition levels for each applicant. The panel is composed of experts selected from all industry sectors and represents various geographic areas of the state of Illinois.