Southeast Hospital Provides Award-Winning Patient Care

Southeast Hospital provides the region with award-winning patient care for everything from treatment of stroke to GI surgeries.

The hospital ranks among the best in the nation in patient satisfaction and patient safety, according to HealthGrades®, the nation's leading independent health care ratings organization.

Southeast ranked in the top 5 percent of hospitals nationwide in patient safety in 2009. Southeast was one of only 340 hospitals in the nation to receive the 2009-2010 Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ from HealthGrades.

Five-Star Rated

The hospital for 2009-2010 also is Five-Star rated by HealthGrades for treatment of stroke, GI procedures and surgeries, carotid surgery and pneumonia. The hospital is Five-Star rated in 2010 for prostatectomy and treatment of respiratory failure.

Southeast, a nationally certified Primary Stroke Center, ranks in the top 15 percent of hospitals nationwide for stroke care. For the second in year in a row, the Cape Girardeau hospital ranks in the top 10 in Missouri for treatment of stroke, according to HealthGrades. The hospital is the only provider of stroke care in the southeast Missouri region to rank in the top 10 in the state.

Hospital president and CEO Debbie Linnes says, "This is about saving lives." Mary Sweet, a provider services consultant with HealthGrades, agrees. "Patients receiving care at Southeast have better survival rates and shorter lengths of stay," she notes.

Southeast also ranks among the top 10 in Missouri in 2010 for GI surgeries. The hospital also has earned national recognition from the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE). Southeast is one of only six GI providers in Missouri and 134 nationally to receive this prestigious recognition.

Hospital board of trustees chairman Al Spradling III says the Top 10 recognition by HealthGrades reflects the fact that Southeast is "the leading provider of GI care in the region."

Linnes adds that "it speaks to the ongoing quality of the organization we have."

New and expanded Endoscopy Services

Southeast completed work on its new and expanded Endoscopy Services unit in January of this year. The unit covers more than 8,200 square feet, more than double the size of the old GI lab.

With its soothing colors, wavy white wall and its stylish furniture, the waiting room in Endoscopy Services has the look of a spa. "We wanted to give patients and their families the feeling of a spa that just happens to provide a vital health care/screening service," says nurse manager Faith True, BSN, RN-BC, CGRN, CIC, CHL, NE-BC.

Beyond the waiting room, there are new operating and recovery rooms and a new nurse's station. Endoscopy Services is a full-service department, providing patient registration and everything from pre-op to post-op care without the patient ever having to leave the unit.

Emergency Services expansion and Upgrade

Southeast recently upgraded and expanded its Emergency Services to better meet the medical needs of the region by providing faster and more efficient patient care. The project included the renovation of 6,300 square feet as well as a 3,000 square foot expansion to bring the total number of treatment rooms to 25.

Other ER improvements included additional outpatient registration areas, three waiting areas, an expanded triage area and dedicated psych services exam rooms. There is a fully integrated digital radiology area as well as a new, full-service Emergency Services lab. Emergency Services also has implemented an electronic medical records system to further improve and streamline healthcare services.

Southeast's Heart Hospital

On another medical front, Southeast's Heart Hospital continues to provide the best in cardiac and vascular care. The hospital, which introduced open heart surgery to the region in 1984, has a state-of-the-art Electrophysiology Lab, which offers some of the most advanced technologies available to diagnose and treat cardiac arrhythmias.

Southeast's Chest Pain Center, the first in the southeast region to be accredited, was reaccredited last year by the **Society of Chest Pain Centers.

The Chest Pain Center is among just 9 percent of hospitals nationwide with accreditation with PCI, an angioplasty procedure to re-establish blood flow through the coronary arteries that feed the heart.

Magnet hospital

In 2009, Southeast once again was named a Magnet hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center for excellence in nursing services, making it one of a select number of hospitals nationwide to receive this recognition.

HealthGrades representative Mary Sweet, center, presents a plaque recognizing Southeast Missouri Hospital for its Five-Star rated stroke care. Pictured with her from left: Randall Stahly, DO, Medical Director of Southeast's Stroke Center; Debbie Linnes, Hospital President and CEO; John Thompson, Vice Chairman of the Hospital's Board of Trustees; and E. Lee Taylor, MD, JD.

The recognition is the highest honor that a hospital can receive for nursing care. Southeast is the only Magnet hospital in the entire region of Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, western Kentucky, western Tennessee and Arkansas.

"The Magnet recognition has become to nursing what the Lombardi trophy is to football or the gold medal is to the Olympics," says vice president/chief nursing officer Karen Hendrickson, EdD, RN, NEA-BC. "It's confirmation of our resolve as healthcare professionals to provide our patients with excellent care."

Southeast first earned the Magnet recognition in 2004. At the time, it was only the fourth hospital in Missouri and the first outside a metropolitan area of the state to achieve such status. Only 2 percent of hospitals receive the recognition a second time.

"We are extremely pleased to be recognized for having highly educated nurses and systems in place to foster continuing education and excellence in the field of nursing and patient care," Hendrickson says.