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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Madera Community Hospital Emergency Department Receives Operational Excellence Award

Contact: Sarah Hay
800.476.1504
hays@cep.com

(November 2005, Emeryville, California) –Madera Community Hospital (MCH) recently received the 2005 Emergency Department Operational Excellence Award from California Emergency Physicians (CEP) Medical Group.

Of the 54 CEP Emergency Department sites, Madera Community Hospital stood out because of its remarkably reduced wait times, increased patient satisfaction and strong staff relations. Much of Madera Community Hospital’s success can be attributed to the implementation of a Rapid Medical Evaluation program (RME), a proven methodology aimed at reducing patient wait time.

Under the RME program, the Emergency Department decreased its Time to Provider (TTP) from 34 minutes to 8 minutes. The estimated TTP was over 60 minutes when CEP was awarded the ED contract in 2003. Moreover, the percentage of patients who left without being seen (LWBS) decreased from 3.5% to less than 1%. Madera Community Hospital also launched a Service Excellence Initiative and experienced a substantial increase in patient satisfaction. Even as patient volume rose, patient complaints decreased dramatically.

Additionally, the ED has demonstrated strong physician and nurse relations, earning high scores in such categories as "Overall Atmosphere" and "Sense of Team." One way, in particular, the Madera Community Hospital ED consistently fosters these relations is by investing in its nurses’ continued education. Through monthly “Lunch-and-Learn” meetings, interested nurses can expand their knowledge on a variety of clinical and pharmaceutical issues.

Finally, a hospital administrator survey rated the Madera Community Hospital ED very highly in terms of “Overall Performance,” based on such indicators as clinical quality, patient satisfaction, leadership and staff.

Says David Smith, MD, Medical Director, “The Service Excellence Initiative, so well-adopted by the leadership and nursing staff at MCH, stresses the patient’s experience as a key standard by which we judge our performance.” He explains that the healthcare community has been slow to adopt some of the best practices of companies who lead in providing real service excellence, but that is changing. “At Madera Community Hospital, we strive to combine the latest in diagnostic and therapeutic treatment with shorter wait times,” he continues. “The world-class results achieved by the Department are gathering nationwide attention, and the RME program is gaining recognition as a new model for emergency care. We provide an alternative to the lengthy waits and long drives associated with other area facilities. The people of Madera can be proud of this staff and its achievements.”

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Madera Community hospital is a 16-bed ED with an annual patient volume of 32,500 visits. CEP was founded in 1975 and is a premier provider of physician staffing, management, and consulting services for Emergency Department and Ambulatory Care Practices in California, Oregon and Georgia. CEP includes more than 1,000 providers who treat nearly 2.5 million patients each year. For more information on CEP, visit their website at www.cep.com.