Pamela Rezac tells Michelle Rivera that a continuous investment in this organization has made it one of the best rural health centers in the country.

In 2000, Avera Sacred Heart Hospital became committed to developing a comprehensive campus setting that would enhance the care and convenience of patients, promote a conducive work environment for all staff, and meet the future needs of its region. With that goal in mind, the organization has developed new facilities and programs to fully service its 15-county service area in southeast South Dakota and Northeast Nebraska.

Pamela Rezac, President and CEO

“We met the needs of our elderly first and then proceeded onto our main campus,” explained Rezac. In 2002, Avera created a Rehabilitation and Wellness Institute that provides therapeutic and community wellness services as well as physician clinic services. Following that development, the organization in 2004 constructed a same-day surgery center. Located on the ground floor of the Rehabilitation and Wellness Institute, the state-of-the-art facility has four operating suites and eleven patient rooms connected by an enclosed passage directly into the hospital.

Soaring to new heights
Most recently, the organization built a new ED that opened its doors in August 2006. Press Ganey has ranked the department in the top 1% in patient satisfaction as compared to 886 hospitals nationwide. “We’re extremely proud of that,” Rezac said. “The new infrastructure, which has doubled in size, helps the department soar in service excellence.”

The ED staff has vastly changed their methods of service delivery. For instance, patients no longer need to register at the entrance of the admitting office. The hospital has implemented a rapid bedside registration in all treatment rooms. Working with advanced monitoring capabilities, staff members can track patients using software at a centralized nursing station.

Four highly skilled emergency physicians provide round-the-clock physician care. These full-time employed physicians have been in place since 2005, and according to Rezac, they and the nursing staff are the nucleus of the provision of service excellence in raising the bar for best practices. “This has enabled us to have faster door-to-treatment times in national averages, and patient privacy is far more optimal,” she said.

There are separate entrances for emergency arrivals and walk-in patients. Before the new ED was in place, everyone poured through the same entrance, whether it was an ambulance bringing in a trauma patient or a walk-in patient in need of minor treatment. “Everyone converged together. Now it’s separate, and we have an enclosed ambulance garage where the emergency medical services group can conveniently come and go,” Rezac said.

The ED staff has remained constant; many have been with the organization more than 10 years. “There’s a lot of uniformity in staff. We have provided them with the best infrastructure so they can improve even more,” Rezac said.

Journey to excellence
Since 2000, Avera Sacred Heart Hospital embarked on a service excellence journey, using the ED and its staff as role models for the rest of the facility. “Previously, we thought if we provided and received high patient satisfaction scores close to the national norm, we’d be fine,” said Rezac. “But since 2000, we kept reviewing service excellence and patient satisfaction and determined we needed to set our goals higher; we wanted to strive to be the best of the best.”

The hospital is in its third year of a specific three-year journey in service excellence in which it rose from the national norms of the 75th percentile to the 88th percentile today. Since beginning its journey, the hospital has increased patient satisfaction more than 14%, and Rezac’s goal is for the entire organization to rank in the 90th percentile in 2007.

“We’ve accomplished many things because we set our goals high. The ED and its staff are the role models, having achieved the 99th percentile. They have been in the 99th percentile for several quarters,” she said.

System-wide support
Rezac added that two important components of the success of Avera Sacred Heart can be contributed to the heritage of its sister sponsorships and the value of being part of the Avera Health System. The Benedictine and Presentation Sisters came to the Dakotas in the late 1800s, intending to become educators. But due to the needs of the communities during an influenza epidemic, they established hospitals instead. The Presentation and Benedictine Sisters established several hospitals and nursing homes throughout the region from 1897 into the 20th century.

In l998, the religious orders joined together to ensure their health ministry would be perpetuated and formed the Avera Health System. Today, Avera is the largest health system in the five-state area, with healthcare facilities in 81 communities and assets of $1.2 billion.

Avera is also the largest employer in the state and provides Avera Sacred Heart Hospital with resources and support in development of best practices, clinical and technical programs, a comprehensive system-wide information system, pooled investments, and access to capital. “Avera and Avera Sacred Heart share a common mission: to serve the people of the region with high quality healthcare services, especially in rural areas,” Rezac concluded.