By By Adam Prestridge
One of the best qualities of small, close-knit communities is the hometown feeling you receive when visiting local businesses.
Whether you need a prescription dropped off at your home or dry cleaning picked up at your office, quaint towns such as Atmore offer those added conveniences that large, metropolitan cities do not.
But what if you are injured in a car wreck and are in need of immediate medical attention. You seek that same personal, one-on-one attention that not only will help you while you are ailing, but also calm you during your time of need.
Atmore Community Hospital has proven that it is worthy of its name fulfilling its obligation to the "community" of Atmore by offering stellar patient care. For its employees' efforts, Atmore Community Hospital was recently recognized at a ceremony in New York for patient satisfaction.
"What a great testament to our hospital staff," ACH administrator Bob Gowing said. "Our employees and physicians are responsible for maintaining a high level of patient satisfaction and they do it consistently."
Atmore Community Hospital, along with four other Baptist Health Care facilities, were honored at a conference held by the nation's leading patient satisfaction measurement firm, Press Ganey Associates, which surveys more than 7,000 client facilities across the United States.
"We are delighted with the affiliation that we have with Baptist Health Care and what they have brought to our hospital," Escambia County Alabama Community Hospital Board member William Grissett said. "We are absolutely blessed to have the medical facility that we have in a town our size."
Grissett said not only is the award a testament of the type of employees at Atmore Community Hospital, but of the people who live in Atmore.
"It reflects on the quality of the people that we've got here," Grissett said. "You can not succeed without good people."
Jay Hospital, Baptist Hospital, Gulf Breeze Hospital and Baptist Medical Park also received Press Ganey's 2006 Summit Award for consistently placing in the Top 5 percent of the firm's customer satisfaction database. The award is given only to facilities that sustain the highest levels of patient satisfaction for at least three consecutive years.
According to Baptist Health Care's public relations manager Candy McGuyre, Atmore Community Hospital, which has remained at the 99th percentile since 1999, received the award for inpatient care. Jay Hospital, too, received the award for remaining in the 99th percentile for inpatient care since 1999.
Receiving awards for both inpatient and outpatient services, Baptist Hospital has scored among the Top 5 percent of U.S. hospitals since 1997 and in the 99th percentile since 1998. Gulf Breeze Hospital received awards for its inpatient, emergency room and ambulatory services; its inpatient scores have been in the 99th percentile since 1996 and emergency room and ambulatory services have been in the 99th percentile since joining the survey, 1997 and 1999 respectively.
Baptist Medical Park received the award for ambulatory services, which have scored in the 99th percentile on the Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey since its opening nearly seven years ago.
The awards were presented in ceremonies held at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on Broadway. The Summit Award is Press Ganey's newest award as well as the most challenging to attain.
"We have a wonderful group of health care professionals that have and will continue to provide outstanding quality care and service," Gowing concluded.