Officials at the Wilmington VA Medical Center say a recent overhaul of its leadership has led to improvements in the quality of care at the hospital.
The VA based in Wilmington represents all of Delaware and some of southern New Jersey with five community-based health centers throughout the region.
It has replaced its Medical Center Director, Chief of Staff, Nurse Executive and Associate Director in the past year.
The new leadership is pointing to a quarterly scorecard measuring 25 quality metrics. They say the data indicates the Wilmington VA has advanced from 118th to 61st in the past year among the ranks of 146 VA facilities nationwide.
Medical Center Director Vince Kane says access to care has been an emphasis.
“Everything does really begin and end with how quickly you engage the veterans, how do you get them into appointments, how do you make sure those appointments are offered in a way that is closer to their home that is convenient to their healthcare needs,” said Kane.
Director of Quality Management Christine Micek says since the quarterly scorecard’s release Wilmington has advanced even further - reaching 35th overall nationwide.
“A very positive thing for us here in this medical center to see all the hard work that the staff have put in have really shown a significant result,” said Micek. “What we do now is keep those changes we’ve already made in place and start looking to see our next steps in improvement.”
The Wilmington VA did not, in fact, show improvement across the board according to the scorecard.
The acute care inpatient mortality ratio and 30-day readmission rate were among categories with higher ratings in last year’s data.