Paris Community Hospital Earns Top 100 Award

Paris Community Hospital (PCH), a service of Horizon Health, has been named a Top 100 Critical Access Hospital in the nation by The Chartis Center for Rural Health.

PCH is one of only two critical access hospitals in Illinois to receive the award. Nationally, only 100 of the more than 1,300 critical access hospitals in the US received the top honor.

“This recognition shows the strong commitment and dedication of our employees and the communities we serve,” said Oliver Smith, president and CEO of Horizon Health. “Hospitals across the country are facing many challenges in a complex healthcare environment. We are very fortunate to be able to continue progress toward our vision of meeting the ever-changing healthcare needs of our communities.”

The term “critical access hospital” is a federal designation designed to improve access to healthcare by keeping essential services in rural communities. PCH is one of 51 critical access hospitals in Illinois.

"We were very proud and excited to see two of our member hospitals attaining this prestigious national honor," said Pat Schou, executive director of the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network. Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Lincoln also received this distinction.

Regarded as one of the industry’s most significant designations of performance excellence, the annual Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals award is based upon the results of the Hospital Strength INDEX® from iVantage Health Analytics.

The INDEX leverages 50 rural-relevant indicators across eight pillars of hospital strength (i.e., Inpatient Market Share, Outpatient Market Share, Cost, Charge, Quality, Outcomes, Patient Perspective, and Financial Stability) to determine an overall score for each hospital. Each of the INDEX’s 50 indicators is culled from publicly-available data sources.

“Top 100 status is a real indicator of how proactive these hospitals are when it comes to pushing for performance improvement in areas such as quality, outcomes, patient safety, market share and finance,” said Michael Topchik, national leader of The Chartis Center for Rural Health.