With multiple quality initiatives in place, Cullman Regional is being recognized by national healthcare quality programs.
According to a press release from Cullman Regional, the facility saved an estimated 301 lives from January 2017 to May 2024 by following best practice guidelines for sepsis care set by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid. The hospital’s high performance in this quality metric earned it a spot in the CMS Top 10% Performance rankings.
Sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospitals and has been a priority quality measure with CMS since 2015. Each year at least 1.7 million adults develop sepsis and at least 350,000 adults die as a result.
Cullman Regional also ranks as a CMS Top 10% Performance hospital for elective deliveries less than 39 weeks, which is a way to measure the quality of prenatal care. The press release also stated that the hospital consistently beats national and state benchmarks in the remaining CMS quality initiatives which include stroke care, ER wait times and colon cancer screening follow up.
“We’re making quality care more than an organizational goal,” Cullman Regional CEO James Clements said in a statement. “We’re creating a culture where providing high quality care is at the forefront of everything we do.”
Also, Cullman Regional recently earned two American Heart Association Get With the Guidelines achievement awards. According to the AHA, the Get With the Guidelines program “promotes consistent adherence to the latest research-driven guidelines to improve patient outcomes across cardiovascular and stroke focus areas and ultimately leads to lives saved, shorter recovery times and fewer readmissions to the hospital.”
“Appropriate sepsis management, early stroke detection and treatment, and evidenced based heart failure management saves lives,” Dr. Bill Smith, Cullman Regional Chief Medical Officer said. “These awards underscore Cullman Regional’s commitment to improving survival, minimizing disability, and accelerating recovery times for our patients.”