Welcome to the website of Spooner Health System. Since our humble beginnings in 1955 we have been dedicated to caring for and improving the health of the citizens of Spooner and surrounding communities in northwest Wisconsin. Here you will find information about the services provided in our 25-Bed Critical Access Hospital, 24-hr. Emergency Room and Home Care Department.
Most of all, Spooner Health System takes pride in all their services from routine to emergency. We strive to provide quality healthcare, in a caring environment, close to home.
SHS was recognized as Studer Group’s June 2012
Spooner Health System (SHS) was selected as the recipient of Studer Group’s June Health Care Organization of the Month Award. SHS partnered with Studer Group three years ago when they began their Commitment to Excellence journey. Studer Group is an outcomes-based healthcare consulting firm that works with over 800 organizations to implement tools and tactics to achieve and sustain clinical, service and operational excellence.
The Health Care Organization of the Month Award is a prestigious honor that is given to organizations that stand out from their peers as a premier example of quality healthcare. Since partnering with Studer Group in 2009, SHS has implemented several evidence-based systems and practices resulting in great improvement in both employee and patient satisfaction.
“Our patients are telling us that they are more satisfied with the care they are receiving at SHS,” says Clint Miller, Director of Patient Care Services. Shown here are some of the areas of greatest improvement.
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Question
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Oct-Dec 2010
Percentile Rank
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Jan-March 2012
Percentile Rank
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Nurses listen carefully to you
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72
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95
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Call button help as soon as you wanted it
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84
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96
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Doctors explain in a way you understand
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87
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97
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Cleanliness and quietness of hospital environment
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3
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74
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Staff tell you what new medicine is for
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64
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80
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“We ask our employees to participate in an Employee Partnership Survey each year,” says Human Resource Director Cindy Rouzer, “and as you can see, they are telling us that SHS is a better place to work than it was a few years ago.” The Partnership Survey consists of both satisfaction and engagement questions.
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Year
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Percentile Rank per Press Ganey Database
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2009
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12
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2010
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59
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2011
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94
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The beautiful glass flame award presented to SHS recognizes them as a Fire Starter organization. Fire Starters ignite the flame of service and caring for others resulting in measurable positive outcomes. The award reflects SHS’s passion and commitment to creating a culture of excellence and becoming a better place for patients to receive care, employees to work and physicians to practice medicine. This flame will serve as a reminder of the progress they’ve made as well as an encouragement to press on and continue striving for yet a higher level of excellence.
Click here to read more about our Commitment to Excellence journey.
SHS Recognized as "Most Wired" in Healthcare
Spooner Health System (SHS) was recently named one of the nation’s Most Wired healthcare facilities for the fourth time in the last five years. The Most Wired Survey is conducted annually by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, the journal of the American Hospital Association (AHA), which uses the results to name the top Most Wired hospitals and health systems in the United States. It focuses on how the nation’s hospitals use information technologies for quality, customer service, public health and safety, business processes and workforce issues.
“We couldn’t win just on the basis of what we’ve accomplished in past years,” explains Mike DiPasquale, Information Technology (IT) Director of SHS. “We completed the entire evaluation process all over again and had to demonstrate that we’ve made substantial progress since last year.”
At SHS, Information Technology is one of the vehicles used to help them accomplish their mission to provide high quality health care. Advanced diagnostic imaging technology allows them to provide more consistent, accurate and timely tests. Having the electronic medical record allows SHS to communicate more effectively and efficiently within the departments and throughout the organization. All of these things result in a more positive patient experience. Better technology also means less repetitive testing is needed due to the ability to get higher quality images and to share information electronically. Patients are realizing that you don’t have to travel far or go to a large hospital to get top-notch technology.
As SHS moves toward a more digitized health system, they are ensuring patient privacy by encrypting laptops and adding an extra layer of passwords on all computers. One of the things they do to ensure patient safety is when a nurse walks in the room, the nurse scans the patient’s armband and then they scan the medication. This will alert the nurse if it is a wrong medication or even a wrong dose for that particular patient. As a result of this process and other safety measures, med errors have been greatly reduced to an absolute minimum.
“It’s truly an honor to receive this award again, but not just for the sake of winning an award” says Mike Schafer, CEO of SHS. “Rather, because it acknowledges our dedication to continue making technological advancements that will allow us to provide the safe high quality care that our patients deserve. It really fits in quite well with our Commitment to Excellence journey that we are on. We really want to create a better place for our patients to receive care and having state-of-the art technology is one way we are doing that.”