Provena Health received the Top 25 Health System Quality Award this week from Total Benchmark Solutions, a leading provider of benchmarking and decision support services for health care organizations throughout North America.

Total Benchmark Solutions ranks health care systems nationwide based on the treatment of three common medical conditions: heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia, from January to December 2004.

“We are delighted, but not surprised to hear that Provena was among the nation’s top 25 best-scoring health systems,” said William T. Foley, president and CEO of Provena, in a press release. “Delivering the highest quality health care in the safest possible environment is something we take extremely seriously at our ministries, and our staff’s commitment to ensure our patients receive the best care in unparalleled.”

Provena, which is a Catholic health care system consisting of six hospitals, 16 long-term care and senior residential facilities, and 28 clinics, refers to its hospitals as ministries.

The values and core goals of Provena are the driving force behind its success, said Margaret Gavigan, senior systems vice president and chief clinical officer.

“The core values of our organization are respect, integrity, stewardship and excellence,” she said.

Complementing these values is a strategic plan, which focuses on improvement of care.

“I really think our over-arching strategy is our quality focus” Gavigan said. “When you describe what the ‘it’ is about our vision, people will tell you that it is our focus on improving quality.”

In the pursuit of this improvement, Provena has a system-wide discipline of recording data on its patient results.

“If we see that a certain (Provena) hospital is doing very well in a particular category, we will immediately try to figure out what they are doing to get those great results,” Gavigan said.

This active process in which the hospitals learn from one another’s success serves to unify the entire health care system. To further unite the vision and goals of the organization, all of the leaders, system-wide, are brought together three times a year to evaluate their progress on goals and focus on the strategic plan, Gavigan said.

In addition to the honor bestowed upon the entire Provena Health System, the local hospital, Provena Covenant Hospital, 1400 W. Park St., was ranked among the Top 100 out of nearly 2000 hospitals ranked nationwide by Total Benchmark Solutions.

Provena Covenant is a very unique place, said Dr. Bernard Gawne, the chief medical officer at the hospital.

“I’ve trained at 12 hospitals, 3 university and 9 community; I practiced on staff at 6 hospitals,” he said. “I will tell you that there is something different here. It’s the culture, it’s very much a culture of caring. It’s something the nurses notice, it’s what makes people want to work here.”

“It’s really a very interdisciplinary approach, where the whole team works together to establish a plan of care and teamwork to produce the outcome for the patient,” said Patricia Schulte, chief operating officer and chief nurse executive. “Teamwork is basically the only way we can achieve the results we want and provide the care that is needed.”

Provena Health Care accepts all insurances and provides charity care.

“As a hospital, we receive people of all races, backgrounds and religions, and from patients we receive feedback that they feel that there is respect and compassion for them, and even though this is a Catholic-based organization, they feel that their ideals are respected and cared for,” said Gawne. “Our mission for Provena is to build communities of healing and hope.”