Awards & Recognition

• National Research Corp. has named Baptist among the nation's top hospitals as a Consumer Choice Award winner for the 14th consecutive year. The award identifies hospitals that healthcare consumers have chosen as having the highest quality and image in 250 markets throughout the United States. Winners are determined by consumer perceptions on multiple quality and image ratings collected in the company's annual market study.

• Palmetto Health Richland is among the hospitals to receive the Studer Group's 2012 Excellence in Patient Care award. Richland was recognized in the category of Academic/Teaching Hospitals. To be eligible for the award, an organization must demonstrate outstanding performance in patient care. Recipients were nominated based on performance in key metrics, and winners were selected based on achievement, improvement, and overall outstanding performance.

• For the third year in a row, Palmetto Health has been recognized as the best in healthcare by readers of The State newspaper in its annual Readers' Choice awards announced on July 29. This year Palmetto Health was voted Best Healthcare System and Best Place to Have a Baby, a great recognition of how our team members and physicians are always taking the extra step for our patients and their families. This year all businesses were eligible to win up to two different categories. We are pleased with the recognition we received as Best Hospital System and Best Place to Have a Baby. 

• Palmetto Health received the Golden Apple award from the S.C. Hospital Association in recognition of our efforts to offer employees tasty and nutritious meal options. The award recognizes the healthy choices that are provided in the Palmetto Health cafeterias and the corresponding nutrition information, along with a price differential that encourages healthier options such as diet drinks. 

• Congratulations to James W. Curtis Jr., DMD, and John F. Burton Jr., DDS, of the Palmetto Health Dental Center, who have been named among the Top Dentists in the Midlands. The honor was based on voting by hundreds of the doctors' peers in the dental profession. They were asked who they would recommend to their patients, taking into consideration experience, continuing education, manner with patients, use of new techniques and patient results. Only those with top rankings were named Top Dentists in the Midlands.

• Palmetto Health again has been recognized for the third straight year as one of the 2012 "Most Wired" organizations by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. Palmetto Health previously won the award in 2003, 2005, 2010 and 2011. The "Most Wired" hospitals and health systems were selected as a result of a nationwide survey that recognizes excellence in information technology. These organizations are dedicated to creating and adopting IT initiatives to improve the safety and quality of care and better meet patients' needs. Palmetto Health was the only healthcare system in the Midlands to earn the recognition.

• IDG's Computerworld has announced Palmetto Health as a 2012 Best Places to Work in IT honoree, one of 100 top organizations providing an engaging work environment, challenging and meaningful work for their IT staffs, and great benefits and compensation. Honorees will be included in coverage in Computerworld magazine along with results from the 19th annual Best Places to Work in IT survey. Palmetto Health ranked 19th in the nation, up from 22nd in 2011, and second in the South Atlantic region.

• The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has approved a new neurology residency training program at Palmetto Health and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. The four-year accreditation allows USC School of Medicine's Department of Neurology, Palmetto Health Richland and Wm. Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center to develop a neurology residency program that provides comprehensive training for future physicians. The Palmetto Health/University of South Carolina Neurology Residency Program becomes only the second accredited neurology residency program in South Carolina. Residents joining Palmetto Health/USC will train under the direction of Dr. Souvik Sen, an internationally recognized stroke neurologist.

• Stacey McPhail, Director of the Palmetto Health Maternal and Child Health Initiative, was awarded the Murray L. Vincent Outstanding Prevention Professional Award at the 2012 annual meeting of the South Carolina Campaign to the Prevent Teen Pregnancy. From 2009 to 2010, the teen birth rate in Richland County decreased by 18 percent. The Teen Health Initiative at Palmetto Health works to provide support and assistance to teens, guiding them toward making better choices when faced with tough issues. McPhail has been the director of the initiative since 2000.

• Palmetto Health was honored as a finalist for the 2011 Foster G. McGaw Prize for Excellence in Community Service, one of the most esteemed community service honors in healthcare. The honor recognized Palmetto Health's commitment to improving the health and well-being of people in the Midlands. The Foster G. McGaw Prize is sponsored by The Baxter International Foundation and the American Hospital Association and Health Research & Educational Trust. As a finalist, Palmetto Health received $10,000 to be used to support our community health initiatives. Palmetto Health also was a finalist in 2010. 

• Julian Gibbons, vice president for Community and Governmental Relations, has been honored as a 2012 Grassroots Award winner by the American Hospital Association. The award recognizes the exceptional work by Gibbons in generating grassroots and community activity in support of a hospital's mission. 

• Dr. William Gerard, Chief of Staff emeritus at Richland, has been honored as the Medical Control Physician of the Year by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Dr. Gerard is a specialist in emergency medicine and the chairman of the Palmetto Health Quality Collaborative.

• Medical Oncology at Palmetto Health Richland, received an award from the S.C. Hospital Association for its work to prevent central line infections. It has been honored as the Mid-Collaborative Most Improved on the CUSP-Stop BSI National Collaborative Award. 

• Palmetto SeniorCare, an all-inclusive older adult day health program received a flawless CMS evaluation for its most recent review. The regional surveyors said Palmetto SeniorCare is an example for all PACE programs in the country.

• The University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Palmetto Health Continuing Medical Education Organization has been recognized with a prestigious national award, the 2012 Alliance for CME Award for Outstanding Educational Collaboration. The award recognizes organizations best demonstrating innovation or uniqueness in achieving effective CME collaboration. A collaborative USC-Palmetto Health effort delivered a successful statewide educational initiative for community pediatric providers who are part of the South Carolina Autism Treatment Network.

• Palmetto Health was awarded the Get With the Guidelines Silver Plus award and the Target Stroke Honor Roll award at the International Stroke Conference in New Orleans on Feb. 2. The Get With the Guidelines awards recognize hospitals that maintain at least 85 percent compliance in each of the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Achievement Measures. The silver award represents 12 consecutive months of reported data at the 85 percent level. The Plus Award is an additional recognition based on maintaining 75 percent compliance with at least five of nine quality measures.  As a result of this recognition, Palmetto Health also will be listed in the "Best Hospitals" issue of U.S. News & World Report. Target: Stroke was created to help hospital teams meet the goal of administering tPA to eligible ischemic stroke patients through door-to-needle (DTN) times of 60 minutes or less, which can greatly improve patient outcomes.

• Palmetto Health's Marketing and Communications department was honored several times at the Addy Awards, sponsored by the American Advertising Federation of the Midlands. The new exterior of the Children's Hospital Mobile Van received a Gold Addy award, as did photographer George Fulton, who took the striking images of superhero children that cover it. Palmetto Health also received three Silver Addy awards: for the Baptist Parkridge groundbreaking event, for the Children's Hospital brochure and for the promotional flyer for the rehabilitation services at the Northwest YMCA.  

• Palmetto Health received the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce 2011 Excellence in Diversity Workplace award in the large employer category.

• For the fourth consecutive year, Palmetto Health has been named as one of Modern Healthcare's 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare. This national recognition program celebrates healthcare environments that enable employees to perform at their optimum level and thus provide patients and customers with the best possible care and services.

• The Studer Group has selected Palmetto Health Richland for an "Excellence in Patient Care" top Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (HCAHPS) award in the large hospital category under the composite: Doctors Always Communicated Well.

• Palmetto Health again has been recognized as one of the Best Places to Work in S.C.! This is the third year that the system has been recognized for this award from the S.C. Chamber of Commerce and SCBIZ. This places Palmetto Health among the very top tier of large employers in South Carolina, regardless of industry.

• Palmetto Health has been recognized as the best in healthcare by readers of The State newspaper in its annual Readers' Choice awards announced Sunday, July 31. Palmetto Health swept all three of the healthcare categories: Best Healthcare System and Best Place to Have a Baby, and Best Healthcare Facility (Palmetto Health Baptist).

• Palmetto Health received a $3 million grant from the Duke Endowment to develop a new model of care for complex patients. The grant will be used over the course of three years to expand Ambulatory Care Transition Team, an outpatient case management program, to develop an Ambulatory Care Center for Evaluation and Stabilization of patients, and to strengthen physician practices by securing National Center for Quality Assurance (NCQA) accreditation as a patient-centered medical home. Read more about this grant here.

• Working Well, funded through The Duke Endowment, has highlighted Palmetto Health as a Center of Excellence because of our innovative leadership in the realm of employee wellness and our desire to improve population health in our community. As A Working Well Center of Excellence, Palmetto Health will provide leadership within the healthcare industry, business community and community at large.

• Palmetto Health has again been recognized as one of the 2011 "Most Wired" organizations by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. This year, Palmetto Health is the only Midlands healthcare provider to meet the magazine's strict criteria and one of only four "Most Wired" organizations in South Carolina. Palmetto Health previously won the award in 2003, 2005 and 2010. Read more about this honor here.

• IDG's Computerworld magazine and website has announced Palmetto Health as a 2011 Best Places to Work in IT honoree, one of the 100 top organizations that challenge their IT staffs while providing great benefits and compensation. Honorees will be included in coverage in Computerworld along with results from the 18th annual Best Places to Work in IT survey. Palmetto Health ranked 22 out of the top 100 in the nation, which makes us fourth in employers from 2,500 to 9,999 and fifth in the South Atlantic region.

• The Joint Commission has certified Palmetto Health Richland as a primary stroke center—the first and only hospital in the Midlands to receive this recognition. The certification is The Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval^TM. As a Primary Stroke Center, the hospital has the resources to rapidly identify and treat stroke victims arriving at their facility at a moment's notice. Palmetto Health Richland will work closely with emergency medical service providers to fast-track patients to the hospital and assess and treat them with nationally developed protocols that greatly diminish the chances of disability and death after a stroke.

• Palmetto Health is the first hospital in South Carolina to receive NICHE (Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders) certification. NICHE is a geriatric initiative dedicated to improving the care of hospitalized patients over the age of 65. The program was created by the Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing at New York University College of Nursing. NICHE provides materials and services necessary to enhance geriatric care in the hospital setting. The goal of the program is to increase patient and nurse satisfaction and improve methods of caring for older adults.

• Palmetto Health Cancer Centers has received the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons—making it one of only 90 accredited cancer programs in the United States to receive this award. The CoC Outstanding Achievement Award is designed to recognize cancer programs that strive for excellence in providing quality care to cancer patients. The award is only granted to facilities that have committed to provide the highest level of quality cancer care and that undergo a rigorous evaluation process and review of their performance.

• Palmetto Health won ADDY awards for the following projects: Palmetto Health Baptist Outpatient Surgery brochure; Women Prefer Paflmetto Health (mixed/multiple media); Cancer Survivor Tyrone Hills; Flu Shot poster; Camp Site website.

• Palmetto Health received the Large Business of the Year award from the Greater Irmo Chamber of Commerce. The award was announced at the Irmo Chamber's Red Carpet Gala on Feb. 26, held at the Embassy Suites.

• Palmetto Health's programs and services to reduce health disparities through increased healthcare access and education including a parent-to-parent asthma support group and a school-based teen health initiative, was declared one of three finalists for the 2010 Foster G. McGaw Award. The prestigious award recognizes innovative hospital programs that significantly improve the health and well-being of their community.

• The Institute for Healthcare Improvement has granted mentor status to Palmetto Health in the areas of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection and Governance and Improvement. Palmetto Health Richland also has mentor status for Surgical Site Infection Prevention. Organizations on the Mentor Hospital Registry have volunteered to provide support, advice, clinical expertise, and tips to hospitals seeking help with their quality improvement implementation efforts.

• Palmetto Health has been recognized by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce as one of the state's best places to work. Palmetto Health ranks fourth among large companies with more than 250 employees.

• Palmetto Health Heart Hospital has received the American College of Cardiology Foundation's NCDR ACTION Registry-GWTG Gold Performance Achievement Award for 2010 — one of only 135 hospitals nationwide to do so. The award recognizes the Heart Hospital's commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients, and signifies that it has reached an aggressive goal of treating coronary artery disease patients with 85 percent compliance to core standard levels of care outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.

• The March of Dimes and Greater Columbia Business Monthly have named Palmetto Health as a 2010 Best Company for Working Moms. The award is given to companies who demonstrate a commitment to providing a healthy and nurturing environment that promotes behaviors leading to healthy pregnancies and healthy babies.

• For the third consecutive year, Palmetto Health has been named one of Modern Healthcare's 100 Best Places to Work. Palmetto Health was the only Midlands hospital named.

• Palmetto Health has been recognized as a Gold Level recipient of the American Heart Association's Start! Fit-Friendly Company. Fewer than 20 companies in the Midlands have received this award. Companies are chosen by making the health and wellness of their employees a priority.

• Palmetto Health Richland has been chosen to receive an Excellence in Patient Care award during Studer Group's eighth annual What's Right in Healthcare conference. The award recognizes the hospital for exemplary doctor communication ratings on the HCAHPS patient survey. In the "Over 500 Beds" category, Richland had the best responses to survey questions about physician courtesy, careful listening and clear explanations.

• Palmetto Health's Cancer Centers have received an Accreditation Award–Three Years with Commendation following an onsite survey by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer, making it the first Network (multi-site) Cancer Program in South Carolina. No deficiencies were found and standards were exceeded in seven areas including outcomes analysis, clinical trials, quality improvements and outstanding community outreach.

• Readers of The State newspaper voted Palmetto Health the Best Hospital and the Best Place to Have a Baby.

• The Heart Hospital on the Palmetto Health Richland campus was awarded a Silver Plus award by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association in recognition of their success in using Get With The Guidelines to improve the quality of care for heart failure patients.

• Palmetto Health has again been recognized as one of the 99 "most wired" organizations by Hospitals & Health Networks magazine. In their July issue, Palmetto Health is touted as the only Midlands healthcare provider to meet the magazine's strict criteria and one of only three "most wired" organizations in South Carolina. Hospitals were evaluated on four factors: infrastructure; business and administrative management; clinical quality and safety; and care continuum. Although the survey traditionally recognizes 100 hospitals as the "Most Wired," AHA this year found that just 99 of the 1,280 hospitals surveyed made the cut, with only 7.7 percent of participating hospitals meeting the strict guidelines for inclusion. Additionally, 30 percent of the hospitals on the list in 2009 were not included in 2010. Palmetto Health previously won the award in 2003 and 2005.

• IDG's Computerworld has selected Palmetto Health as one of the top workplaces for information technology (IT) professionals. This honor is part of the IT publication's 17th annual Best Places to Work in IT survey, and published in the June 21 issue of Computerworld and online at Computerworld.com. Palmetto Health was ranked 29th out of 100. Palmetto Health has been included in the ranking for four consecutive years. 

• James I. Raymond, MD, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for Palmetto Health, has been invited to join the Executive Quality Leader Network by Dr. Donald Berwick, CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

• Palmetto Health has been selected as the recipient of the 2010 Richland One Community Coalition Partner Award in the area of health.  

• The Palmetto Health/University of South Carolina pediatric residency training program was notified by the American Board of Pediatrics of a 100 percent pass rate on its certifying examination. Residents must complete a rigorous three-year training program in pediatrics and must pass the ABP examination in order to gain certification in the specialty of pediatrics. About 50 percent of the program's graduates remain in South Carolina to practice medicine. The consistently high board pass rate also has been a boon for recruitment. Over the past 10 years, the program has climbed to the 14th highest spot among approximately 200 pediatric residency training programs in the nation.

• Palmetto Health Family Medicine Center/University of South Carolina School of Medicine Department of Family and Preventive Medicine is the first primary care practice in South Carolina to be recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) as a Level-III Patient-Centered Medical Home—the highest possible designation. The NCQA's Patient-Centered Medical Home is a health care setting that emphasizes partnerships between individual patients and their personal physicians.

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina has designated Palmetto Health Richland Total Joint Center as a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement. Blue Distinction Centers for Knee and Hip Replacement are part of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association's expansion of its Blue Distinction® designation.

• Palmetto Health was named among the Top 100 Integrated Health Networks in the United States for 2010 by Modern Healthcare magazine. The ratings are based on each network's ability to operate as a unified organization in eight categories: integration, integrated technology, contractual capabilities, outpatient utilization, financial stability, services and access, hospital utilization and physicians.

2009

• Palmetto Health Richland was recognized as the top hospital in South Carolina when it comes to organ donation and was awarded a Silver 1 Medal by the Department of Health and Human Services. Only 219 hospitals in the country were awarded this distinction. In those award-winning hospitals, three out of four medically-eligible donors become donors and at least three recovered organs are transplanted per donor. Richland collaborates closely with the state's organ procurement organization, Lifepoint, Inc., to implement the best practices for honoring the final wishes of organ and tissue donors.

• For the second consecutive year, Modern Healthcare has named Palmetto Health one of the Top 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare.

• The Best Places to Work in South Carolina program, sponsored by South Carolina Chamber of Commerce named Palmetto Health as one of the top 20 places to work in the state.

• Palmetto Health was honored with a 2009 Palmetto Pillar Award for New Initiatives Involving Technology. Palmetto Health received the award for its innovation in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Palmetto Health Baptist, completed earlier this year. The award-winning technology provides the best environment — focused on family involvement — for neonates to mature with less stress and fewer long-term effects.

• Palmetto Health hospitals received award payments for outstanding quality performance under the the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration program. Each of our hospitals was rewarded for top performance in ACM scores for year four of the demonstration project.

• Columbia Chamber of Commerce Palmetto Pillar Awards–New Initiatives Involving Technology awarded to Palmetto Health's Information Technology department.

• The South Carolina Medical Association recently awarded Baptist a six-year term of "accreditation with commendation" for its continuing medical education program for physicians. This is the highest accreditation granted by the SCMA. This honor signifies that Baptist employs approved quality educational programs to help physicians keep abreast of new advances in medicine and indicates the hospital's dedication to its physicians' life-long commitment to medicine and continuous learning.

• Palmetto Health Breast Center was the first in South Carolina to be granted a three-year, full accreditation designation by the American College of Surgeons National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers.

• CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration (HQID) – ­Eight awards in a four-year period to Palmetto Health Baptist

• South Carolina Chamber of Commerce Pinnacle of Leadership Award

• IDG's Computer World – Annual List of Best Places to Work in Information Technology for third consecutive year 

• International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Best of the Best award in healthcare category – Palmetto Health Children's Hospital 

2008

• Studer Group Firestarter of the Month – Palmetto Health Baptist and Palmetto Health Richland 

• South Carolina Governor's Quality Award Silver Achiever – Palmetto Health Baptist Easley 

• National Research Corporation's 2008–2009 Consumer Choice Award for 13th consecutive year 

• National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) Merit Award – Celia Saxon Palmetto Health in-kind partnership 

• U.S. News and World Report America's Best Hospitals – Palmetto Health Baptist and Palmetto Health Richland 

• Global Health Exchange (GHX) – 2008 GHXcellence Award to Palmetto Health 

• IDG's Computer World – Annual List of Best Places to Work in Information Technology for second consecutive year 

• Healthy Teen Network's Award for Outstanding Emerging and Innovative Programs 

2007

• IDG's Computer World names Palmetto Health to annual list of Best Places to Work in Information Technology 

• March of Dimes – Top Contributing Company 

• American Hospital Association NOVA Award Winner – Richland Care 

2006

• Best of the Best Premier Award for Quality – Palmetto Health Baptist Easley

• Free Medical Clinic – Legacy Award

• Premier Cares Award Finalist – Vision and Dental Health Initiatives 

2005

• South Carolina Chamber of Commerce Vision Award 

• South Carolina Family Friendly Workplace Award 

• American Hospital Association NOVA Award – Vision Health Initiative