Appleton Medical Center, Theda Clark Preferred for 11th Consecutive Year
Rev. Will Bloedow wasn’t surprised to hear that patients like him picked Appleton Medical Center (AMC) and Theda Clark Medical Center (Theda Clark) in Neenah as having the best quality, doctors, nurses and image in the Appleton-Oshkosh region for the 11th year in a row.
Rev. Bloedow, who has been a ThedaCare patient for 25 years, said he appreciates the personalized service and the electronic medical records that keep his primary doctors, specialists and hospital staff members on the same page when it comes to his care.
“The electronic record file gives me a great amount of security,” he said. “I recently recommended a new neighbor see a doctor at ThedaCare. I told him he had to go there since they took great care of me.”
Lincoln, Nebraska-based National Research Corp. (NRC) recently released the results of its Ticker® survey showing consumers named ThedaCare’s Fox Cities’ hospitals as the 2012-13 Consumer Choice Award winners in the Appleton-Oshkosh area for the 11th year in a row.
AMC and Theda Clark are among only 12 hospitals in Wisconsin to be named Consumer Choice Award winners. Nationwide, 280 hospitals in 300 markets were picked for the honor from more than 3,200 eligible hospitals. The complete list of hospitals was published in a recent edition of Modern Healthcare magazine. This is the 17th year NRC has awarded hospitals whose consumers have recognized them for providing quality healthcare services.
Area consumers overwhelmingly named AMC and Theda Clark as delivering the area’s highest quality care, said Susan L. Hendricks, NRC’s president and chief operating officer. She said the winners were determined based on consumer perceptions of quality and image as collected in the company’s annual study.
Consumer Choice Award winners like AMC and Theda Clark received the highest ratings from consumers in four areas:
- Overall quality
- Best doctors
- Best nurses
- Overall image and reputation
Receiving the Consumer Choice Award is always gratifying since it comes from patients, said Kim Barnas, senior vice president of AMC and Theda Clark. “Patients and their families have chosen Appleton Medical Center and Theda Clark as the best local hospital for 11 years in a row, which is amazing. Receiving the Consumer Choice Award is testament to our staff members, healthcare professionals and volunteers and the great work they do every day to provide the best possible care to patients,” she said.
While Theda Clark and AMC receive the honor, Barnas said the Consumer Choice Award recognizes all the work done by all of ThedaCare’s employees throughout the region along with the independent physicians and their staffs who serve patients at the hospitals.
“The Consumer Choice designation isn’t just for the hospitals, but for everyone associated with ThedaCare,” she said. “We all work together to provide the best care possible for our patients.”
The Consumer Choice designation is based on a consumer survey of healthcare decision makers in the Appleton-Oshkosh market, and was part of a national survey of more than 250,000 households representing 400,000 consumers in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. National results have a margin of error of plus or minus 0.2 percent with a 95 percent level of confidence. NRC has been a leader in healthcare-specific performance measurement for two decades.
The 2012-13 NRC Ticker survey is the nation’s largest and most comprehensive study of its kind. No other study used to measure hospital performance and preferences contains more consumer responses than NRC’s study.
AMC is a 160-bed acute care hospital that opened in 1958. In addition to general medical and surgical care, services include the Appleton Heart Institute, a fully staffed emergency department, pediatrics, birthing services, a comprehensive cancer center, and ThedaCare Orthopedics Plus, which integrates orthopedics, sports medicine, outpatient rehabilitation and other services. Appleton Medical Center is an accredited Chest Pain Center by the national Society of Chest Pain Centers.
Theda Clark is a 166-bed acute care hospital founded in 1909. In addition to general medical and surgical care, specialized services include a birth center, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin - Fox Valley, the region’s only American College of Surgeons Verified Level II Trauma Center, and ThedaStar Air Medical Helicopter. Recognized centers of care include the Theda Clark Stroke Center, the Bariatric Program at Theda Clark, and the Aylward Outpatient Surgery Center.
ThedaCare™ is a community health system consisting of five hospitals: Appleton Medical Center, Theda Clark Medical Center, New London Family Medical Center, Shawano Medical Center, and Riverside Medical Center in Waupaca. ThedaCare also includes ThedaCare Physicians, ThedaCare Behavioral Health, and ThedaCare at Home. ThedaCare is the largest employer in Northeast Wisconsin with more than 6,175 employees. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
National Research Corporation (NASDAQ: NRCI) is an industry leader, with more than two decades of experience in healthcare performance measurement and improvement.