How a Rural Hospital became a Top Critical Access Hospital by Expanding Services
The 25-bed Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital (FMDH) is a rural hospital in Glasgow, Montana and is the only hospital for 150 miles, with a service area of 10,000 people. It was crucial for FMDH to be able to provide as many primary and specialty healthcare services as possible, given the area’s isolation.
Hospital System Level II Trauma Center gains a leg up in meeting patient demand and growing surgical volumes
Increasing patient demand coupled with ongoing healthcare staffing shortages was making it difficult for leadership to recruit and retain adequate personnel to support the Trauma Center’s operations.
Hospital Levels Up and Achieves
Level II Trauma Designation with Surgicalist Model
Orthopedic surgery department consistently saw low patient volumes and a high transfer rate outside the system. It was a vicious cycle: their trauma services were inadequate for many of the patients who came to them, which necessitated
them transferring patients out of the system for care. This led to lower patient volumes, reduced patient access, and impeded their ability to get the funding they needed to expand and grow their volumes. The Surgicalist Model from Synergy Health Partners helped them Level up their Trauma Designation and achieve goals.
Critical Access Hospital Builds an Orthopedic Surgicalist Program and expands General Surgery and Emergency Departments
Forward thinking hospital leadership team had a goal – to establish an orthopedic surgery program at their facility that would give the local community better access to this level of critical care. However, starting an entire hospital department from scratch is a daunting task for a hospital in any region, let alone one in rural America.
With the facility’s clinical and operations team, Synergy Health Partners created, staffed, and implemented an orthopedic surgery program from the ground up with exponential increases in volumes and above average patient satisfaction scores.
