Boone Memorial Hospital
Would like to congratulate
Mike Fankhauser as the BMH Employee of the Year and 
Recipient of the  James F. Trusley Sr. Award of Excellence

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has selected Boone Memorial Hospital as one of ten hospitals in the Country to under take a performance improvement project to improve patient care. BMH, along with Roane General Hospital in Spencer are the only two hospitals in the entire State of West Virginia to embark upon this new journey. 

“This is a 5-year project. At the end of the cycle, the Joint Commission will make a determination of our improvements,” said Tommy Mullins, BMH Administrator. Kathy Hill, Nurse Practitioner was appointed as Project Leader at BMH. “The overall goal of this project is to improve patient care. I feel strongly about helping this hospital. We need it and it means a lot to me,” said Hill. “One thing we’ve started doing are chart tracers which help us determine things we do well and things we can improve. The changes we are making will show employees that we care. A happy employee makes for a better working environment. If our employees are happy, our patients in turn will receive better care,” Hill added.     

After initiating the chart tracer method, BMH organized a Department Director Committee and a Performance Improvement Staff Committee, to help tackle the main issues. “This project will involve every employee. We need support and suggestions from everyone,” said Mullins.                                            

In just a few months BMH has discovered some issues and made great improvements. The Emergency Room has been divided to include a Rural Health Clinic to handle minor medical issues. Wait time has been shortened tremendously. Even communication has improved, which poses a challenge in most workplaces.  

“I feel the performance committee has helped open up better communication among other departments and staff thus leading to better care for our patients,” said Mark Linville, Executive Director of General Services.  “Although we are looking at problem areas we don’t want to overlook the fact that we help so many people here. This project has brought about a sense of team work in us all. We’ve found that all of us care and share the same common goal, TO IMPROVE PATIENT CARE,” concluded Hill.