Area VA Healthcare System gains Best Patient Experience Award

An area Veterans health care system has earned a Best Patient Experience Award for the fifth straight year.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VA Lebanon Healthcare System (VA Lebanon HCS) has been awarded the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Customer Experience (CX) Award for best patient experience for facility complexity level 1.

According to a release, the national recognition honors VA Lebanon HCS for demonstrating the Under Secretary for Health’s “Veterans First” priority by delivering exceptional patient experiences and exemplifying VHA’s mission to build trust, improve access, and provide Veteran-centered care. It marks the fifth straight year the facility has earned this distinction.

“This award is the direct result of our front-line staff and those who enable them, who offer critical care and support to every Veteran who comes into the medical center or one of our community clinics,” VA Lebanon HCS’s Director Jeffrey Beiler II said in a statement. “This award reflects commitment to our number one priority which is ensuring every Veteran and family member we interact with has a Positive Patient Experience – it’s about sustained and compassionate professional care provided to America’s defenders one Veteran at a time.”

The VHA CX Awards recognize VA facilities that consistently demonstrate excellence in service to Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors. Awardees are selected based on performance across customer experience measures, leadership attributes, internal controls, and operational standards.

Best Patient Experience Award recipients are dete3rmined by VHA evaluation of direct feedback from Veterans in areas such as trust, communication, access, emotional support, care coordination and overall satisfaction. VA Lebanon HCS achieved top rankings through efforts designed to meet the needs and expectations of Veterans and their families.

Per the release, VA Lebanon HCS performed well on the following fiscal year measures:

• Survey of Healthcare Experiences of Patients Overall Rating of the Provider
• SHEP Inpatient Overall Rating of the Hospital
• Veterans Signals Trust Score
• All Employee Survey Best Place to Work indicators.

Patient experience scores account for 22% of the overall Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Star Ratings. VA Lebanon HCS also holds a 5-star CMS quality rating for excellence in patient experience, and its outpatient trust score is 96.7%.

Veterans who are not currently enrolled in VA health care, may be eligible to receive care and benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.