Lincoln County Healthcare Senior Vice President of Hospital Operations Cindy Wade, RN, can predict her director of safety’s reaction to a story in Consumer Reports that gave LincolnHealth Hospital, Miles Campus, the highest safety rating in the United States.

“When Cindy Coyne, RN, gets back from vacation she will be very proud of that score,” Wade said. Then, she said, Coyne is going to want to know how the hospital can improve it.

LincolnHealth received 78 points out of 100, according to Consumer Reports, which rated hospitals on factors such as rate of bloodstream infections, avoiding readmissions and how well they explain new medications. Bolivar Medical Center in Cleveland, Miss., received the lowest score, with 11. The ratings are featured in the May edition of the magazine.

But while the top rating went to LincolnHealth, Wade said high quality care at the hospital is possible because of the hard work of providers and staff in every part of Lincoln County Healthcare, from Lincoln Medical Partners practices, to Miles & St. Andrews Home Health and Hospice, to the Gregory Wing and Cove’s Edge, which provide long-term and skilled care in Boothbay Harbor and Damariscotta respectively.

She said it is also important that patients and community members understand that those same providers and staff are not satisfied with a 78, because for them, providing great care is personal.

“Their families live in this county, their friends live in this county and when we are out and about, whether it is at church or Hannaford, we are meeting and greeting people that we may be taking care of on any given day,” she said.

That ethic has always been part of Lincoln County Healthcare, but as health insurance companies and government agencies like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have increasingly focused on quality indicators in recent years, LincolnHealth has garnered national awards.

In December, the Leapfrog Group named LincolnHealth one of the top rural hospitals in the United States for quality and safety for the second time in three years. In August, LincolnHealth received top scores in the Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Quality-in-Sights Hospital Incentive Program.

As a small rural healthcare system, Lincoln County Healthcare may not have the resources that larger hospitals or healthcare systems have, but being small is also an advantage when it comes to fostering strong cooperation between every level of a continuum, Wade said.

“It is not a top-down thing. Staff and providers at every level are engaged and committed,” Wade said. “We have a dedication to standards of care and process improvement and the patient is always at the center.”

For example, she said, one of the hospital’s strongest scores in the Consumer Reports story was its low readmission rates, that is, how likely someone is to return to the hospital soon after discharge.

Those rates are low because nurses and staff at LincolnHealth work with all of a patient’s providers, including Lincoln Medical Partner physicians and Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice staff to make sure patients have the support they need when they go home.

Within 24 to 48 hours after discharge, patients can expect a nurse to call them to make sure they are doing well, understand how to take their medications and know when their follow-up appointment is with their primary care provider.

“Whether it is transitioning them after discharge or working on how we assess them in the home, or long-term care, we work on it as a team,” Wade said.

When there is an opportunity for improvement, Wade said staff from all levels get together around a table and decide what change or changes should be made and how to implement them.

Last year, one of those changes was a new nurse at the Family Care Center in Boothbay Harbor to help patients make the transition from hospital to home.

More recently, Lincoln County Healthcare has begun developing a patient advisory committee. That committee will search for new ways to improve by looking at care through patients’ eyes, she said.

“If something is identified that we can do better, people want to do it better,” Wade said. “We are not OK with the status quo.”