Accomplishments and Awards

The seventh annual Arkansas Governor’s Work-Life Balance Awards luncheon was held at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock today and St. Joseph’s Mercy Health System – a large-company Gold Award recipient each of the last three years – became only the third business in the state to be presented with the prestigious Ambassador Award.

St. Joseph’s Cardiac Rehabilitation Services Program is nationally certified by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR). The association’s certification recognizes rigorously reviewed programs nationwide that have been found to meet outlined essential requirements for standards of care. The Cardiac Rehabilitation Program features two outpatient locations – one in the Mercy Heart & Vascular Center and the other in Suite B of the Mercy Medical Clinic (903 DeSoto Blvd.) in Hot Springs Village.

St. Joseph’s Mercy Cancer Center is certified by the Commission on Cancer (ACoS) of the prestigious American College of Surgeons for offering residents of the Hot Springs area a comprehensive community program. Approval by the ACoS Commission on Cancer is only given to facilities that have voluntarily committed to provide the best in diagnosis and treatment, and that are willing to undergo a rigorous evaluation process and performance review. The Center, which has held the esteemed CoC accreditation since 1992, secured its latest three-year recertifiction in early 2008, following a physician surveyor's successful on-site visit.

The Institute for Helathcare Improvement selected St. Joseph's as Arkansas' first adult acute care mentor institution. St. Joseph's has earned mentor hospital status in the deployment of rapid response teams and prevention of ventilator associated pneumonia.

The McAuley Center, a Hot Springs Village-based facility that houses one of St. Joseph's three Express Care Clinics, was presented the Senior Center Best Practice Award at the 27th annual Arkansas State Aging Conference. The award - given for innovative programming that leads to the enhancement of senior centers - was presented to St. Joseph's for its creation of a new community-based senior services delivery model.

MultiPlan, Inc., the nation's oldest and largest independent PPO network, awarded St. Joseph's Mercy Health Foundation a 2007 Rural Health Outreach Grant for $3,000. St. Joseph's is using the grant money to assit its Mercy Mammography Outreach Program, therefore increasing the probability of early breast cancer detection for low-income and or uninsured women in South Central Arkansas.

In the latter stages of 2007, St. Joseph's Mercy Sleep Center was granted full program accreditation from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). To receive the organization's prestigious five-year accreditation - the gold standard by which both the medical community and public evaluates sleep medicine services - a sleep center must meet or exceed all standards for professional health care as designated by the AASM.

St. Joseph's Mercy Home Health program was named among the 2007 HomeCare Elite, a compilation of the most successful Medicare-certified home health care providers in the United States. The annual HomeCare Elite review identifies the top 25 percent of agencies throughout the nation, ranked by an analysis of performance measures in quality outcomes, quality improvement and financial performance.

St. Joseph’s is also accredited by The Joint Commission.