Catawaba Valley Medical Center Offers Quality Care
Published Jul 03, 2008
Catawba Valley Medical Center
Outstanding commitment to patient care has been key to the success of Catawba Valley Medical Center for more than 40 years.
Built to serve the health needs of area residents, the county-owned center has remained true to its mission despite enormous changes in the health-care industry and widespread privatization of public hospitals around the country.
“We were created to serve as a regional safety net for the most vulnerable, and we take that role pretty seriously,” says Peggy Gentry, spokeswoman for the medical center.
Yet extending help to traditionally underserved patients has never hampered Catawba Valley’s ability to provide top-notch patient care or embrace the newest medical innovations. With a strong financial track record, the center has been self-supporting since an initial bond referendum created the facility in 1961.
Meanwhile, the hospital has gone on to win national and statewide recognition and accreditation in a number of important areas, including a J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital award for patient satisfaction.
Patients rated the center especially high on comfort levels during procedures, doctors’ interest in minimizing pain and emotional support.
“Only 20 percent of the hospitals in the nation will be qualified to achieve this distinction,” says David Stefan, of the J.D. Power health care division, who announced the award in January 2008. “Catawba Valley Medical Center is among an elite class of hospitals.”
The hospital also has been recognized as a Magnet Nursing Facility. This award, by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, signifies the nation’s highest level of hospital nursing services.
“The magnet designation focuses on building excellence, clinically, in nurses,” Gentry says. “To achieve the designation, we had to go through an extensive evaluation process. They look at everything, including whether our top nurses are at the master’s-degree level, how we participate in research and other factors that go into the practice of nursing.”
As a result, the hospital now attracts and retains some of the best nurses in the region.
Catawba Valley Medical Center employs more than 250 medical staff members in a wide range of specialties. The center’s primary service area is Catawba County, but it also treats patients from four adjacent counties.
Hospital specialties include the Center for Diabetes Control, the Weight Loss and Bariatric Surgery Center, the Breast Health Center, and the Women and Children’s Center, which includes a Level III neonatal unit.
Story by Renee Elder
Photo by Ian Curcio
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