The Alomere Health Board received exciting news at its regular board meeting Friday, May 28.

Not only did the Douglas County owned hospital receive a great audit, it received a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for quality and service, and it received the Patient Safety Excellence Award from Healthgrades and was a five-star recipient for spinal fusion surgery.

It is the fourth year in a row Alomere Health received the five-star rating from CMS, said Carl Vaagenes, Alomere Health CEO.

“There are 450 hospitals across the nation that received this and we are one of them,” he said.

It is the second year in a row the hospital received the Patient Safety Excellence Award and the first time being a five-star recipient for spinal fusion surgery, Vaagenes added.

Alomere Health was named among the top 5% and the top 10% in the nation for patient safety two years in a row, according to Healthgrades.

The Patient Safety Excellence Award recognizes hospitals that have the lowest occurrences of 14 preventable patient safety events, including injuries, infections and other serious conditions.

Healthgrades, according to its website, provides accurate, comprehensive information about doctors and hospitals, and is an online resource for patients to find and connect with a doctor or hospital that is right for them.

“There is great work being done by our staff and our physicians,” said Vaagenes. “We have a commitment to excellence.”

Expenses controlled

Korey Boelter, a certified public accountant with CliftonLarsonAllen, the auditing firm for Alomere Health, provided a brief overview of the hospital's audit.

He said it was the second year in a row that the audit was performed remotely.

“The audit for 2020 was the best we’ve had,” said Boelter. “It was great to work with the team from Alomere. Your organization did a great job covering and controlling expenses.”

He also noted that Alomere was able to “hold its own” despite revenues being down because of COVID-19.

Boelter also complimented the hospital staff on its “net days in accounts receivable.” This is the number of days patient accounts are outstanding or the average collection period. He also shared info on debt service coverage, debt to capitalization ratio and more.

“Overall, it was an extremely great audit,” said Boelter. “The best we’ve had and it was amazing we were able to do it remotely.”

He applauded management and the governing board for not “putting their heads in the sand” during the pandemic and keeping the hospital’s expenses in check.

“For a facility your size, you did a great job controlling costs,” Boelter said.