Cary earns Avatar Award

For the third year in a row, Cary Medical Center has earned the ‘Overall Best Performer’ Award from Avatar Solutions, a leading provider of patient, HCAHPS, employee, and physician surveys. According to the company, Cary is one of only 18 hospitals nationwide to earn this level of recognition for three years in a row in the 13 year history of the program.
In addition to the ‘Overall Best Performer’ Award the hospital was named an HCAHPS Best Performer, medium size hospital in three additional categories including communication with nurses, responsiveness of hospital staff and pain management. The hospital also received, for the seventh year in a row the award for exceeding patient expectations. Shawn Anderson, Chief Operating Officer at Cary, said that the quality of the awards and the number of awards received by Cary is quite unique to the company.
“In speaking with staff at Avatar it was clear that this consistent level of recognition is extremely rare and places Cary Medical Center at the very highest level in terms of patient satisfaction and overall performance,” said Anderson. “To perform at this level everyone throughout the organization has to have a strong commitment to service excellence and we are very proud of the work being done by our staff.”
In commenting on Cary’s recognition, Lynn Ehrmantraut, Senior Vice-President of performance improvement at Avatar Solutions said that the awards suggest that the hospital is listening to its patients.
“Avatar award winners show dedication to providing the excellent care experience that patients deserve. The awards indicate that these organizations are listening and responding to patient feedback and committing to provide the best experience for each individual patient.”
Members of the hospital’s staff will be traveling to Augusta, Maine in October to accept the Avatar recognition.
These multiple awards from Avatar come on the heels of the hospital being named at HealthStrong Hospital by Ivantage Analytics, receiving an A in patient safety from the Leapfrog Group, receiving the ‘Excellence’ Award in patient experience from HealthGrades and being recognized by Women Certified as one of America’s best breast centers. Kris Doody, RN, MSB, FACHE and Chief Executive Officer at Cary said that the performance of hospital staff has taken the hospital’s patient centered culture to an entirely new level.
“Cary has been providing care for 90 years, here in Aroostook County,” said Doody, who is marking 15 years as hospital CEO.