CMC Earns State’s Only 2019 Top Rural Hospital Award

Cumberland Medical Center, a member of Covenant Health, is Tennessee’s only hospital to receive The Leapfrog Group’s 2019 Top Rural Hospital Award, and one of just two hospitals in the state to receive Top Hospital honors from The Leapfrog Group.

“This award exemplifies our pledge to put patients first,” said Cumberland Medical Center President and Chief Administrative Officer David Bunch. “We strive for excellence in everything that we do so we can be the first and best choice for our patients. Being recognized nationally as a Top Rural Hospital is symbolic of the diligent work our team performs daily to provide excellent care.”

CMC members with Top Rural Hospital awardPhoto Caption: Cumberland Medical Center’s Medical Executive Committee members pictured left to right front row are: Dr. Darren Barton, Dr. John Lewis, Dr. Rick Gibbs, CMC President and CAO David Bunch, Dr. Mehran Tavallaee, Dr. Thomas Allingham, Dr. Samuel Ong, and Dr. Jonathan Martin. Back row: CMC CFO April VonAchen, Dr. Mark Lee, Dr. William Smith, Quality Manager Melisa McCollough, CMC CNO Shana Wyatt, Dr. David Derr, and Dr. Dirk Davidson. Members not pictured include: Dr. Mark Fox and Dr. Christine Reed.

Only 18 facilities in the nation were recognized as Top Rural Hospitals for 2019. Overall, about 2,100 hospitals were considered by The Leapfrog Group and 120 were awarded top designations in four categories: children’s hospitals, general hospitals, rural hospitals, and teaching hospitals. The award was based on hospital performance in many areas of care, including preventing infections, reducing C-sections, using technology to reduce medication errors and implementing surgical volume standards for safety. Rigorous standards are defined each year to help hospitals stay at the forefront of high quality healthcare.“We are pleased to recognize Cumberland Medical Center as a 2019 Leapfrog Top Rural Hospital,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “This demonstrates extraordinary dedication to patients and to the Cumberland Plateau community. We congratulate the board, staff, and clinicians whose efforts made this honor possible and know they share pride in this achievement.”

To qualify for the Top Hospitals distinction, hospitals had to rank at the top among similar facilities and achieve high levels of performance in the 2019 Leapfrog Hospital Survey. The survey assesses hospital performance on rigorous standards for quality and patient safety.  Winners were officially recognized at Leapfrog’s annual awards dinner and ceremony held in December in Washington, D.C. Children’s Hospital at Erlanger in Chattanooga was the only other Tennessee hospital receiving 2019 Top Hospital honors. It was one of 10 children’s hospitals to be nationally recognized.  

The Leapfrog Group monitors hospital outcomes across the nation and also publishes Safety Grade ratings each Spring and Fall. This assigns an A, B, C, D, or F grade to over 2,600 general hospitals across the country based on their performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harms to patients in their care.In 2019, Cumberland Medical Center earned “A” ratings in both periods for achievements in protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care. Nationally, only 33 percent of hospitals earn “A” safety grades from Leapfrog.  The Leapfrog Group is an independent national nonprofit organization committed to improving health care quality and safety through its 2019 Top Hospitals and The Leapfrog’s Hospital Safety Grade listing.

About Cumberland Medical Center, Cumberland Medical Center has cared for the residents of the Cumberland Plateau since 1950. Now part of Covenant Health, the region’s top performing healthcare network, Cumberland Medical Center offers more medical services and physicians than ever before. Hospital services include breast, cancer, cardiac, critical care, diabetes, emergency, endoscopy, imaging, maternity, orthopedics, physical therapy, surgery, sleep, and wound healing.

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