Committed to the Perfect Care Experience
A Vision as high as the Sierra
Our goal is simple and our vision is clear: To be the Best Mountain Community Health System in the Nation.
At Tahoe Forest Health System, we strive to deliver the highest quality medical care experience to you and your family. Our strong commitment to patient safety is evidenced in everything we do. We've adopted the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence criteria to benchmark ourselves against the best hospitals in the nation. This framework is a recognized standard of high performing organizations, and helps us in our quest to offer every patient and family a "Perfect Care Experience."
Our employees and physicians are passionate about providing you with the very best medical care. And they do it because they care about you, their friends, neighbors and visitors.
Patient safety and satisfaction is our highest priority, and we're aiming high.
Meeting your needs through STEEEP™
We subscribe to the radical notion that you should count on receiving medical services that meets your needs. Our adoption of the Malcolm Baldrige framework helps us align quality and patient safety with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Triple Aim Initiative, whose goal is to improve the health of the population, enhance the patient experience of care, and reduce healthcare costs.
We've also adopted the Institute of Medicine's six specific aims for quality and patient safety called STEEEP™.
One of America's Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals
We are proud of our many recognitions for high quality in rural health care delivery.
Because of our strong focus on quality, performance excellence, innovation and excellent patient care, Tahoe Forest Health System was recently named one of America's Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals. For more information on our quality, performance excellence and patient satisfaction recognitions, click on the links below:
- Named one of America's Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals
- UC Davis Rural Center of Excellence
- UC Davis Cancer Care Network
- UC Davis Rural PRIME medical education program
- CAPE Gold recipient for Performance Excellence
- Pathway to Excellence in Nursing
- Baby Friendly
- Five Star Service rated Extended Care Center
- Five Star Service rated Children's Center
- Community Benefit Report
Accredidation: HFAP
Have a question about our Quality Program?
We'd love to hear from you! Providing easily accessible information to our patients and families is just one way of making decisions about your health care. We encourage you to contact our Quality and Regulations Department with questions you may have about the information on these pages.
Paige Nebeker Thomason
Tahoe Forest Health System
pthomason@tfhd.com
(530) 582-6290
One of the Nation's Highest Rated Hospitals for Patient Satisfaction
Tahoe Forest Health System consistently exceeds national and state averages for patient satisfaction. And through Press Ganey, the country's leading healthcare survey company, we're continually apprised of our performance.
Delivering high quality health care is top-of-mind for every physician, every nurse and every employee in every department throughout the health system. We're proud of our personalized and compassionate high quality care, and our patients agree.
One of the Nation's Safest Hospitals, Demonstrating the Highest Patient Safety Standards
Quality control for any hospital starts at a basic, microscopic level: Controlling bacteria and infection. At Tahoe Forest Health System, secondary infections are very rare because of our rigorous prevention program which includes patient communication and education, thorough pre and post-op preparation, and follow-up of each patient after discharge.
We follow the Centers for Disease Control monitoring guidelines to track the incidence of hospital acquired infections, and report the results regularly.
Compared with national benchmarks of hospital infection rates throughout the United States, Tahoe Forest Health System ranks among the country's best. Over the last four years, infection rates have been rated either "very low" or "zero."
Why is Hospital Infection Prevention Important to You?
Every patient or visitor of Tahoe Forest Health System can be assured that our infection control and prevention standards are rigorous and based on evidence-based practice endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) as well as local and state health agencies.
In a hospital, patients are cared for by physicians, nurses, technicians, and more. While anyone can get an infection, some people are at higher risk. Infection prevention is a key factor in helping our patients recover quickly and stay healthy once they leave the hospital.
Prevention Practices at Tahoe Forest Health System include:
- Ongoing personal hygiene education for all of our healthcare providers, including an aggressive seasonal flu prevention program for all employees.
- Hospital visitor education, encouraging those with illness not to visit the hospital.
- A focus on safe work practices including hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection, safe injection practices and use of masks, gloves, gowns when needed.
- Patient education and infection prevention tools prior to admission, and follow-up after discharge.
Surgical Care Improvement Program, How We Measure Up
At Tahoe Forest Health System, we reduce the risk of infection by providing care that's proven to give the best results. Some examples include:
- Giving the recommended antibiotics at the right time before surgery
- Stopping antibiotics within the right time after surgery
- Maintaining patients blood sugar and temperature
- Removing catheters used to drain the bladder in a timely manner after surgery
We also reduce the risk of cardiac problems associated with surgery by:
- Making sure that certain prescription drugs are continued before, during and just after the surgery. This includes drugs used to control heart rhythms and blood pressure.
- Giving drugs that prevent blood clots, and using other methods such as special stockings to increase circulation in the legs.
How We Demonstrate High Quality Care
Heart Failure
Heart Failure is a weakening of the hearts pumping power. Simply put, your heart isn't getting enough oxygen and nutrients to function.
This table shows some of the care processes for adults with heart failure. Tahoe Forest Health System rates higher than the nations top performing hospitals.
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is a serious lung infection that causes difficulty breathing and is accompanied by fever, cough and fatigue.
This table shows the recommended treatment for pneumonia patients, and how TFHS compares to California hospitals and National averages.
We encourage you to contact our Quality and Regulations Department with questions you may have about the information on these pages.
Have a question about our Quality Program?
We'd love to hear from you! Providing easily accessible information to our patients and families is just one way of making decisions about your health care. We encourage you to contact our Quality and Regulations Department with questions you may have about the information on these pages.
Paige Nebeker Thomason
Tahoe Forest Health System
pthomason@tfhd.com
(530) 582-6290
