Pinckneyville Community Hospital receives national recognition

Pinckneyville Community Hospital has received national recognition for an innovative approach to post-acute care that supports a patients continued recovery from illness or management of a chronic illness or disability. Pinckneyville Community Hospital is committed to keeping pace with healthcare transformation, which is key to sustaining access to health services for the community. The National Rural Health Resource Center (The Center) and the Illinois Critical Access Hospital Network recognized Pinckneyville Community Hospital for its team approach to post-acute care through coordination of case management, transitional care, social services, and chronic care management services.

Critical access hospital recognition was established by The Center and the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy to recognize the excellent work in critical access hospitals and other rural safety net providers throughout the country. The recognition shares excellence and innovation and honors the achievements.

Three states were chosen for CAH recognition in innovative post-acute care. "The achievement in post-acute care initiatives by CAHs is impressive," stated Sally Buck, Chief Executive Officer at The Center. "It reflects the innovation required to address unique population health needs in rural communities. Providing services locally benefits the patient, the overall community, and enhances CAH performance outcomes."

Healthcare delivered in rural communities is affordable, high quality, and necessary to the overall health of the entire community, Randall Dauby, Pinckneyville Community Hospital CEO, said, "With the addition of Barb Brand, RN, Transitional Care Coordinator, we have been able to reduce our readmission rate from 12.6 to 3.1. Barb assists with patients who are high risk for readmission to ensure they understand their hospital discharge instructions, obtain their medications, keep their scheduled doctor's appointments and help coordinate any additional services they may need. Barb works closely with Deb Hale, RN, Chronic Care Manager at Family Medical Center, to transition these patients to their Primary Care Physician for further monitoring of their medical condition and implementing preventative care measures to keep the patient in the home setting." Laura Fischer, Flex Grant Project Manager from ICAHN said, "Illinois is very proud to have a critical access hospital doing such innovative work to provide comprehensive quality healthcare to its patients."