Dr. David Gnegy, cardiologist, talked with Cindy Kern, Camden Clark Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety, during an awards presentation Tuesday recognizing the many services and treatments the WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center have excelled at over the last two years. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

PARKERSBURG — The WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center has received a number of awards for the services it provides and provided assistance to a community organization on Tuesday.

At two different gatherings held at the medical center hospitals announced a number of awards they received and made a donation to the local American Red Cross Chapter.

Cindy Kern, Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety at Camden Clark, said many of the awards the medical center have received came in over the last 15-24 months during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Hospitals really strive to meet quality recognitions as it relates to our outcomes,” she said. “Historically, we’ll have two to three a year. Over the last two years we have gotten over 20 separate recognitions for our quality outcomes. That is beyond amazing.”

Among the recognitions the medical center received included the 2022 Society of Thoracic Surgeons 3-Star Highest Quality CABG Procedures; the National Distinction of Excellence HeartCARE Center 2021; the American Heart Association’s 2021 Get With The Guidelines Silver Plus Award for stroke care; and the US News & World Report High Performing Hospitals for heart failure treatment for 2020-21.

The team at WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center who does treatment of chronic obstructive disease and Sepsis Care were recognized with a number of awards and recognitions Tuesday. The medical center was recognized with a number of nationally recognized awards and recommendations for the care given there. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

Healthgrades is one of two largest analytic companies that measure health care outcomes and standardize that across different hospitals and produce a report every year with recognitions.

The medical center received 5-Star ratings for Treatment of Heart Failure, Treatment of Sepsis, Treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Treatment of Bowel Obstruction for 2022. They also had received 5-Star ratings for Hysterectomy, C-Section Delivery, Cranial Neurosurgery, Total Knee Replacement and Treatment of Stroke for 2021. They also received a 5-Star Excellence Award for Gynecologic Surgery for 2021.

“Many of these are our primary service lines and we are receiving recognition for them,” Kern said.

The medical center also received Top 100 Hospital in the Nation recognitions from CareChex for Heart Failure Treatment, Cancer Care (two recognitions), Major Neuro-Surgery, Pneumonia Care and Sepsis Care for 2022.

Kern commended the work and effort of hospital staff to deliver these quality outcomes.

Officials from WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center presented the American Red Cross of the Ohio River Valley chapter with a $3,000 check to support local Red Cross efforts in the community. From left are Susan Dearman of Camden Clark; Brian Adams of the American Red Cross of the Ohio River Valley chapter; Sharon Kesselring, executive director of the American Red Cross of the Ohio River Valley; Steve Altmiller, President and CEO of the WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center; MarJean Kennedy of Camden Clark; Rhonda Boso-Suggs of Camden Clark and Elizabeth Bennett of Camden Clark. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

“It is not the awards, but the outcomes we provide to the community,” Kern said. “Still, it is quite an honor to receive these awards as recognition for the hard work we do every day.”

Camden Clark President and CEO Steve Altmiller talked about how these awards were earned over the last two years during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was the toughest time in healthcare with COVID,” he said. “When you think of every area (of treatment), COVID affected everything we did.

“We had to improvise, make changes, pivot … we did all of those things and we excelled in patient care.”

He credited the staff, medical providers, the hospital’s leadership and the entire organization for these accomplishments through their continued hard work and rising to meet the many challenges they have.

“I am very proud of work each of you have done from the clinics to the ER to the ICUs and across our whole organization,” Altmiller said. “You have a lot to reflect on with what we learned, where we need to continue to improve and what are we going to do to continue to earn patient, staff and physician respect from the work we do.

“That is to constantly improve the care we give the communities we serve.”

On Tuesday, Camden Clark also made a donation of $3,000 to the American Red Cross of the Ohio River Valley chapter.

“We have had a long standing partnership with (Camden Clark) and this is one of the gifts they provide to us each year in addition to holding blood drives and helping maintain an adequate blood supply in the community,” said Sharon Kesselring, executive director of the American Red Cross of the Ohio River Valley. “They understand the need for financial support and this is a very large gift from them.

“The $3,000 is a great way to celebrate the emergence out of so many COVID protocols to be able to help clients who are in such great need in the area.”

The money will remain in the community served by Camden Clark and it will help with blood drives, disaster services, services to the armed forces, local veterans and other services in this area, she said.

The Red Cross is a non-profit organization that relies on donations to be able to provide the services they do in the community.

“Camden Clark gets that and they understand our need, especially when we can report to them the type of impact their gift has had in this area,” Kesselring said.

That includes the hundreds of people the Red Cross assists with disaster services, thousands of people impacted through blood donations and veteran/active military families they have been able to support and more.

“It is amazing how far that dollar can be stretched,” Kesselring said. “We appreciate WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center for being one of those many partners that allow us to do that great work in this area.”

Altmiller said the medical center and the Red Cross has many shared goals in their missions. He talked about disaster planning the center does and the help the Red Cross provides.

During COVID, blood supplies have had issues and the medical center has worked with the Red Cross to do blood drives to keep that supply up.

“Thankfully, we did not run out of blood for the patients in our community,” he said. “I encourage people to donate blood as you never know when you or your family members will need blood.

“It is good to have partners who meet the mission of improving the health of the community.”