A recent ranking of critical access hospitals noted only one in Oklahoma in the top 100 across the nation – Mercy Watonga.
Chartis, a top healthcare management consultant, lists critical access hospitals based on performance metrics, quality analytics and patient perspectives. The system uses publicly available datasets to analyze eight pillars of performance, and the topranking hospitals make the Top 100 list.
“The type of service we provide at a critical access hospital is right there in the name — critical,” said Bobby Stitt, Mercy Hospital Watonga administrator. “Having basic emergency and hospital services in town is essential to a smaller community like Watonga. But it’s the caregivers at our hospital who make Watonga rank among the nation’s best. They’re dedicated to providing the best possible care and do so with compassion every day.”
A critical access hospital by definition provides 24-hour emergency care and inpatient beds in communities more than 35 miles from another hospital. If Medicare certifies the hospital, it receives cost based reimbursement, making medical services in smaller communities financially sustainable.
A study by Oklahoma State University partnered with the Oklahoma Office of Rural Health found that the average annual impact of critical access hospitals is more than $4.5 million in their own communities.
Forty of the 154 hospitals in Oklahoma are critical access hospitals, but only Mercy Hospital Watonga made the Top 100 list.