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UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton hospital was the No. 1 rated hospital in overall HCAHPS after recent data.

A portion of the UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton staff.

Some of the UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton staff that helped earn top ratings in patient safety and satisfaction.

A group photo for the grand opening of UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton hospital.

A gathering at UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton hospital was recently rebranded by The University of Alabama-Birmingham Health System Authority.

Story By Carey Reeder

Photos Contributed by UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton Hospital

UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton continued its long run of excellence in patient care and satisfaction by setting a new high for performance in the area. When it comes to rural healthcare, there is no place better in The Yellowhammer State.

The hospital received its Hospital Consumer Assessment for Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores and data for the three most recent quarters through the end of September 2024. St. Vincent’s Chilton was the No. 1 rated hospital in overall HCAHPS score out of 63 hospitals in Alabama for all three quarters in the new data. Nationally, they ranked 113th, 60th and 62nd in the three quarters in that order out of over 3,200 hospitals. The last quarter of data for 2024 has not closed out yet, but will be provided at a later date.

“I think it shows the level of commitment and engagement that our associates have, and that goes beyond just our nurses,” Shanon Hamilton, UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton Administrator, said. “Our nurses play a critical role in the patient care that is provided each day, but that is everyone on our care team — patient care technicians, food and nutrition staff, our environmental services staff and our providers. It is the entire team that is being evaluated and being represented by these scores.”

HCAHPS scores are consumer experience, or patient satisfaction, scores that are an indicator of the patient’s experience while under care at a specific hospital. In layman’s terms, it is a measure of how patients view their care that is provided to them when they are in inpatient care at the hospital.

Hamilton said the goal of the hospital is to exceed the patient’s expectations, but with that takes a lot of effort and specific follow up so the staff can understand the areas they are excelling in, and ones they can improve in. He added that the leadership and management teams at the hospital have found areas in the past where they are both excelling and need improvement through previous surveys. From there, the teams can relay to the associates on ways to improve, or for a job well done.

“There are varying types of surveys that are done based on the service,” Hamilton said. “For example, we get surveyed for outpatient patient satisfaction, outpatient surgery patient satisfaction, emergency department patient satisfaction and inpatient patient satisfaction. Each one of those surveys is important for us to be able to understand how our associates are caring for the patients, and the perception the patients have about the service they experienced here.”

Hamilton provided HCAHPS score data from each year since 2020, and the years are broken down into quarters. Of the 15 data points from 2020, only one time (quarter three in 2023) did St. Vincent’s Chilton rank outside the top 5 in Alabama, and only one time (quarter one in 2023, 79%) did St. Vincent’s Chilton receive a hospital score below 80%. The hospital ranked No. 2 in the state four different times, but never No. 1 until the recent data was released. Six times in the 15 data points the hospitals ranked in the top 200 hospitals across the nation which includes anywhere from 3,000-3,400 hospitals. The hospital score of 88% in the second and third quarters of 2024 are the highest in the 15 data points as well.

The HCAHPS scores are represented on The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) website where UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton is rated as a five-star hospital for consumer experience. Hamilton said how someone feels about the visit they had to St. Vincent’s Chilton is critical because it is a good predictor as to whether or not they will choose to come back the next time they, or one of their family members, needs care.

“It is something we are very proud of, and it is something we try hard to keep,” Hamilton said. “Patient experience is something that everyone plays a role in, and every hospital has the same opportunity to try to ensure their patients are satisfied. It is one of those situations where each individual person that cares for or works with a patient during their stay can make or break that visit. With an understanding that we are not perfect, we have staff that try very hard to ensure that each patient is cared for appropriately and that the level of care they receive exceeds their expectations.”

While having a good experience is the most important for St Vincent’s Chilton, providing safe and effective care at the same time is equally as important. In the fall of last year, the hospital received an A grade for patient safety by The Leapfrog Group, one of only four hospitals to receive an A grade in patient safety in Alabama.

After a merger between Ascension St. Vincent’s Health System and The University of Alabama-Birmingham Health System Authority in June 2024, the hospital went through some changes as the two huge healthcare entities came together as one. Through all of that, there was never a dip in patient satisfaction or patient safety at the hospital, a testament to the professionalism of everyone there.

“We provide the same level and quality of care that our patients come to expect, and we expect,” Pamela Culotta, Director of Nursing at UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton Hospital, said. “We have shared with them our commitment to continue to give that high quality of care, answering questions that patients and families have and providing services to the extent we can while they are under our care.”

Culotta added that the hospital’s strong relationships with its patients, organizations and businesses in the Chilton County community did not allow for a dip in anything during the merger because they mean so much, and hopes they were even strengthened from it and will be in the future. The overall morale between management and the associates at the hospital is high, and that is a reflection upon the amount of time the management team has been with the hospital.

“That allows us to know each other very well, and we know how to support each other,” Hamilton said. “I do think that the continuity of the leadership team helps, but we have such great associates that work at UAB St. Vincent’s Chilton. When we are looking for people to bring onto our team, we really try to make sure they fit what we are looking for here from a customer service and experience standpoint. We want people that not only provide great care, but do it with the right spirit and attitude.”

Hamilton added that the Chilton County Healthcare Authority plays a huge role in what the hospital does on a daily basis by providing them with the resources they need to be able to care for the citizens in the community. He thanked them for that, and allowing the hospital to get to this point as the top hospital in Alabama in HCAHPS scores.

These types of scores validate that even in a very difficult business — healthcare in rural Alabama, that you can be successful if everyone is all working towards the same common goal.

“We are certainly proud that here in Chilton County we have a hospital that is the highest rated in Leapfrog, but also have the highest rated hospital in the state of Alabama for overall HCAHPS scores,” Hamilton said. “Those are two achievements that we want the community to understand that we may not provide every single service possible, but what we do provide, we provide with excellence.”

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