Horizon Health Honored for Quality Performance

The Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network (ICAHN) recently recognized Horizon Health for its ongoing commitment to exceptional quality of care. The announcement was made during ICAHN’s Annual Conference, November 17, via Zoom.

Horizon Health and other critical access hospitals were asked to voluntarily participate in four quality outcomes as part of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Medicare Beneficiary Quality Improvement Program (MBQIP). These included patient safety/inpatient, patient engagement, care transitions, and outpatient measures.

Horizon Health was honored for being a top performer in all four quality outcomes for demonstrating the most improvement over one year, and for its recent “5-Star” patient satisfaction rating. The ratings program, called the HCAHPS Summary Star Rating system, stands for Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems. Results can be evaluated comparatively to other area hospitals, state averages, or national averages at Medicare.gov.

“We are very proud of our team for achieving this level of excellence in health quality,” said Ollie Smith, Horizon Health president and CEO. “This is truly a team effort that recognizes our dedication to delivering a healthcare experience, of which our patients and staff can be proud.”

Laura Fischer, ICAHN Flex coordinator, added: “Often, in rural hospitals, having a devoted staff member to abstract and submit this data can be both time-consuming and burdensome. Horizon Health realizes how important quality of care and an engaged staff are for its patients.”

ICAHN is a network of 57 small rural Illinois hospitals dedicated to strengthening the operations of its member hospitals through collaboration. The organization is composed of Illinois hospitals that have earned critical access hospital designation by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.