Electra Memorial Hospital: Continuing to improve quality of care for their community

Electra Memorial Hospital, a 19-bed, publicly owned critical access hospital (CAH) located in Electra, TX, was one of three organizations selected to participate in the 2021-2022 Rural Health Provider Transition Project (RHPTP). 

During their year-long engagement in RHPTP, EMH worked with RHPTP’s technical assistance (TA) consultants on financial and operational improvements, to develop a strategy and infrastructure to improve their coordination of care across settings and into the community. Below are some of EMH’s top accomplishments and early outcomes made possible through their RHPTP participation. 

• Established a strong, cohesive team of champions that worked closely together to identify and implement a variety of efforts 
• Performed audits and completed workflow process mapping to learn of any gaps and opportunities in care transitions 
• Improved their organization’s overall population health readiness by 89% in areas such as operating efficiencies, quality and engagement, and care management 
• Experienced a 64% overall improvement in their coordination of care including areas such as organization culture, processes, and systems to support excellence, and organizational alignment 
• Performed an all-discipline assessment to determine patterns and gaps in employees’ understanding of care coordination, and developed an education plan based on results 
• Developed a clinical assessment to learn perceptions on a more nurse specific level to determine patterns and gaps in perception and knowledge 
• Rolled out a health-related social needs assessment process 
• Introduced In-Patient and Emergency Department Care Coordination programs, which are helping to improve the quality of care for patients, and better preparing them for population health  
• Improved wellness by expanding the rehab gym and opening it to the public 
• Took additional steps towards disease prevention by joining an ACO 
• Hired a new In-Patient Care Coordinator and Nurse Practitioner/Clinical Educator 
• Saw a 41% increase in outpatient infusions, and a 25% increase in swing bed utilization 
• Developed a comprehensive diabetic policy and new diabetic management program  
• Instituted the Electra Memorial Hospital (EMH) Employee Forum as a platform for open communication with the CEO and C-Suite Executive Team 
• Conducted staff HCAHPS training and have seen improved HCAHPS scores  

Electra Memorial Hospital has anchored health care services for over 40 years providing acute care, swing bed, emergency medicine, infusion/wound care, ultrasound, cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation, laboratory, radiology, rehabilitation, sleep study and related outpatient ancillary services to the residents of Electra, Texas, and surrounding communities. EMH’s services span a moderate geographic area of approximately 13,000 people across four zip codes. In addition to the services listed above, EMH also operates: 

• Electra Home Health – home health services 
• Three rural health clinics (RHCs) located in Electra (1) and Iowa Park (2) 
• Two pharmacies – Goldsmith’s Drug pharmacy located in Electra and Iowa Park Pharmacy in Iowa Park 
• Electra Medical Supply – Durable medical equipment (DME) supplier 
• Electra Tri-Med Ambulance – EMS services 
• Imagination Station – state-licensed childcare center located in Electra 

Electra Memorial Hospital was recently awarded Top 20 Critical Access Hospitals in the nation for Patient Satisfaction by the National Rural Health Association. Along with that honor, they continue efforts to implement new programs and improve upon current processes, and procedures, such as expanding care coordination to their clinics, utilizing and documenting social drivers of health z-codes, and rehab department process evaluation and assessment, just to  name a few. 

EMH’s CEO Rebecca McCain shared that their participation in RHPTP served as a steppingstone to better understand how to safely and effectively move toward value-based care.  She and her team are thrilled with the progress and achievements made during and since their project participation. They continue to build upon their strengths as a team to deliver the highest quality of care to their patients, while better positioning their organization to be effective and successful participants in a health system focused on value.