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Louis Smith Memorial Hospital Recognized for Best Practice

Posted on: July 11th, 2013

7/11/2013

Louis Smith Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of South Georgia Medical Center, recently received a Best Practice Award at the Southeast Critical Access Hospital Conference hosted by Hometown Health, LLC. LSMH submitted its nomination to the Best Practice Exchange for review among 75 other hospitals across the southeast, including Georgia, Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina.The best practice recognized by the organization aligns with Lanier Health Services’ mission to “provide quality service with a personal touch.” It is standard at LSMH for registrars to personally escort patients to their destination after registering them and ensuring they understand everything from their rights to their financial obligations. “No patient is sent down the hallway with vague instructions or is assumed to know where he or she is headed,” states Lanier Health Services Administrator Neil Ginty. “The best thing about this best practice is it doesn’t cost anything, and the extra time and attention given to the patient is priceless.”Since the inception of this practice, LSMH has seen a significant increase in its patient satisfaction scores. HomeTown Health, LLC is a network of rural hospitals, healthcare providers, and best practice business partners with a mission to collectively pursue ways to help its members survive in an environment of constant change in reimbursement, operations and technology. Other topics presented at the conference related to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ new policies in healthcare with the implementation of electronic health records, the secure exchange of health information, and the measurement and reporting of hospital quality, ICD-10, reimbursement and value-based purchasing.