A drone photograph shows Wallowa Memorial Hospital. (Wallowa County Chieftain, File)

ENTERPRISE — For the fifth time in the past six years, Wallowa Memorial Hospital has again been ranked among the top 20 critical access hospitals for overall performance in the country and the only hospital to make the esteemed list in all of Oregon, according to a press release.

The top 20 hospitals scored best as determined by the Chartis Center for Rural Health for Overall Performance. The rankings were recently announced by the National Rural Health Association. In September an awards ceremony will be held during NRHA’s Critical Access Hospital Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

The top 20 CAHs have achieved success in overall performance based on a composite rating from eight indices of strength: inpatient market share, outpatient market share, quality, outcomes, patient perspective, cost, charge, and finance. This group was selected from the Chartis Center for Rural Health’s 2022 top 100 CAH list, which was released earlier this year.

The top 20 CAH best-practice recipients have achieved success in one of two key areas of performance:

• Quality index: A rating of hospital performance based on the percentile rank across rural-relevant process of care measures.
• Patient perspective index: A rating of hospital performance based on the percentile rank across all 10 HCAHPS domains.

“Wallowa Memorial is proud of the efforts of our hardworking physicians and staff who have contributed to our hospital achieving this designation,” said Larry Davy, hospital CEO. “The support of our community is also a significant part of this success. It has allowed us to add several desired services that are often not offered in rural communities. These services include but are not limited to orthopedics, extensive rehabilitation services and outpatient therapy for cancer patients. Our results as an overall top performer means our community can count on us to deliver the services they need now and in the future.”

Wallowa Memorial Hospital is a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital and Level IV Trauma Center. The current hospital was built in 2007 and serves the residents and visitors of Wallowa County.