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Peach Regional Medical Center and Central Georgia Health System/The Medical Center of Central Georgia today announced plans to develop a partnership to enhance healthcare services in Peach County and the surrounding counties served.

“We are excited about this partnership which will be a positive endeavor for the people of Peach County,” said Nancy Peed, Chief Executive Officer of Peach Regional Medical Center. “We believe that a partnership with Central Georgia Health System will enable us to build a much needed replacement hospital for substantially less than if we built it on our own. By working together, we will improve the quality of care and broaden the scope of services provided in our community.”
For the past several years, Peach Regional has been working toward the construction of a new hospital to replace its aged facility. While the hospital’s certificate of need for a replacement facility was approved by the Georgia Department of Community Health, plans for the facility have not prevailed due to the downturn in our national economy. The hospital approached Central Georgia Health System/The Medical Center of Central Georgia to determine the feasibility of  developing a new regional partnership for the future provision of healthcare in Peach County and surrounding communities.
“Peach Regional and the Medical Center have had a good working relationship for many years, through a past management agreement and, currently, working together daily as the Medical Center is the designated acute care hospital for our patients,” Peed added. “We look forward to developing this new partnership over the next several months with a goal of building a new facility and exploring other opportunities that will meet the mission of both organizations in providing quality healthcare for the communities we serve.”
Central Georgia Health System President and CEO Don Faulk said, “Having worked with Peach Regional’s administration and boards for over 20 years, we are now looking forward to having them join the family of services within Central Georgia Health System. The size and scope of services of Central Georgia Health System and The Medical Center of Central Georgia will bring great value in health care to the residents of Peach County. Still under development, we hope to complete all approvals within the next few months. In our role as the region’s tertiary hospital, we will continue to work with other regional hospitals to improve the delivery of health care services to the citizens of Central and South Georgia.”

        Peach Regional Medical Center in Fort Valley has been named to the Georgia Hospital Association’s (GHA) Partnership for Health and Accountability (PHA) Quality Honor Roll. Peach regional Medical Center is one of 62 hospitals in Georgia to be placed in the Presidential category, one of the highest on the list. The honor roll is based on clinical data provided by the federal Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS), which administers the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. The data was collected from October 2009 to September 2010.

“This is a great accomplishment for Peach Regional Medical Center],” said Joseph Parker, president of GHA. “This recognition further underscores the commitment of the hospital staff to ensuring that every patient receives the best, most effective health care possible.”

All acute care hospitals are required to submit care data to CMS. This data details how well a hospital’s caregivers adhere to a list of eight Appropriate Care Measures (ACM), which are the clinical processes of care that are known to be the most effective methods of treatment for patients who have suffered heart attacks, heart failure or pneumonia. The ACM is a composite measure that determines whether or not a patient received the right care at the right time.

For instance, a recommended treatment to help prevent a heart attack is to take aspirin either before or upon arrival at the hospital, as well as at discharge. A suggested treatment for pneumonia is to administer an antibiotic within four hours of a patient’s arrival. A hospital’s adherence to these recommended clinical practices usually leads to better outcomes.

“It is our mission to ensure that each of our patients receives the right care at the right time and this recognition validates this,” said Nancy Peed, Chief Executive Officer of Peach Regional Medical Center. “This honor is a tribute to the hard work and dedication of our staff who are constantly working to make excellent care even better.”
 

About Peach Regional Medical Center
Peach Regional Medical Center is a 25 bed Critical Access Hospital located in Fort Valley, Peach County, Georgia.

About PHA
The Partnership for Health and Accountability, formed in January 2000 and sponsored by the Georgia Hospital Association, is a unique statewide collaborative that brings together health care providers with community agencies and individuals to achieve healthy communities. PHA includes representation from groups like hospitals, physicians, state health officials, legislators and businesses.
 

Peach Regional Medical Center (PRMC) of Fort Valley, Georgia is poised to enhance their high quality of patient care even further with the expansion of Empower Systems? Electronic Health Record technology from the Emergency Department into all Inpatient,and Ambulatory Surgery units. Empower Hospital + Office? is an ONC Certified Complete Electronic Health Record that will enable PRMC nurses and physicians to access the comprehensive, user-friendly clinical documentation technology of Empower Systems? throughout the entire hospital and in the PRMC- owned physician office.
“Our commitment to delivering the highest qualify medical care to our community prompted the decision to expand Empower’s clinical documentation into all hospital departments,” noted Nancy Peed, CEO of Peach Regional Medical Center. “We are confident this will further elevate patient care and be an exciting tool for our entire clinical team.”
Dr. Seth Guterman, CEO of Empower Systems?, echoes this sentiment. “We truly value partners such as Peach Regional. It is through our flourishing relationship that we can help them deliver the highest quality medical care via advanced clinical documentation and concise communication, which will benefit the patients they serve.”
The successful partnership of Empower Systems? and PRMC began in 2007 with the installation of empowerED?, the JCAHO-acclaimed Emergency Department Information System, and continues its evolution into the new decade. Serving the community since 1953, Peach Regional has always been committed to delivering the highest quality, most expedient, patient care available. As a regional innovator, PRMC continues to lead by example; their decision to be proactive with ARRA/HITECH healthcare IT mandates underscores this fact. They have established themselves among the leading patient-focused medical centers in the US and will continue playing a vital role in the region. Empower Systems? is proud of the expanded partnership and looks forward to helping Peach Regional pursue its ongoing commitment to patients, medical professionals, and the community at large.