Waupun Memorial Makes List of Top 100 Rural Hospitals

Waupun Memorial Hospital (WMH) has been named for a second consecutive time to a top 100 list of rural hospitals around the country.

WMH is joined by 12 other critical access hospitals in Wisconsin receiving this designation, as part of an assessment by iVantage Health Analytics on market conditions, clinical and operational performance, and financial and qualitative outcomes.

Wisconsin had more critical access hospitals listed in the top 100 than any other state. Nearly all 1,331 critical access hospitals nationwide – covering 33 states – are in rural areas.

The Hospital Strength Index reflects the multiple challenges of running a hospital by incorporating the measures on which the industry has worked to gain consensus and standardization.

Findings of the iVantage Health Analytics study on the nation’s Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) shed new, multi-dimensional light on the characteristics of the Top 100 performing CAHs. The 2013 “Benchmark Performance for Critical Access Hospitals” study is a trending study of the rural hospital industry.

“Waupun Memorial Hospital is very proud of this achievement,” says DeAnn Thurmer, Waupun Memorial Hospital chief operating officer. “We have been intentional in our long-term strategies to provide the highest quality of care at a local level. We have diligently recruited new providers that have enhanced the comprehensive services and programs we offer the Waupun community, and we are backed by the full resources of Agnesian HealthCare.”

Key findings from the study include:

  • Top 100 CAHs include 60 multi-year top performers with 40 new facilities joining the ranks in 2013
  • Top 100 CAHs perform as well or better at the median overall than the full census of all U.S. general acute care hospitals
  • Top 100 CAHs are disproportionately located in the Northern half of the United States with nearly one third located in three contiguous Upper Midwest states (13 in Wisconsin; nine in Minnesota; nine in Iowa)
  • Top 100 CAHs face the least population-based demand for future healthcare services while their quality is near the top quartile when compared to all U.S. general acute care hospitals
  • Top 100 CAH performance is in the top quartile of all U.S. general acute care hospitals in the financial and cost & charge categories of the study
  • Top 100 CAHs are equally divided in terms of organizational structure – (52 percent are independent; 48 percent are system-affiliated).

Small and rural hospitals play a critical role in providing efficient and effective healthcare that is on par with other larger suburban and urban counterparts.  

“Rural hospitals have new and difficult demands that are best managed with actionable information,” says John Morrow, executive vice president of iVantage Health Analytics, Inc. “The Hospital Strength Index reflects the multiple challenges of running a hospital by incorporating the measures on which the industry has worked to gain consensus and standardization.”