My Hospital, My Community Award
By Terry Bailey
The Mitchell County Hospital Health Systems welcomed out-of-town guests at the hospital, Wednesday morning November 14th. Representatives from athenahealthcare were in town to present the hospital with a $15,000 check as the grand prize for finishing in first place in the My Hospital, My Community contest.
athenahealthcare is a network of enabled services for healthcare, such as EHR, medical billing, financial management, and care coordination. Their headquarters is in Watertown, Massachusetts, near Boston.
athenahealth sponsored the "My Hospital, My Community" contest. Any hospital with 150 beds or less in the United States could participate. This is the second year for them to host the contest. Everyone in the Mitchell County Hospital Health system community - executives, hospital staff, board members, and patients were encouraged to submit a story on "what their community hospital means to them."
There were 3 different ways individuals could participate:
1) post a video, photo or written entry on the athenathealth's Facebook page.
2) email a written submission
3) submit a written entry via traditional mail.
The contest was created to increase awareness and support for the unique challenges faced by community hospitals. In total there were over 700 submissions and approximately 150 hospitals participated in the contest.
The top five winners were:
1st: MCHHS - $15,000
2nd: Grove Hill Memorial Hospital, AL - $7000
3rd: Iron County Hospital, MO $5000
4th: Endless Mountain Health System, PA - $2000
5th: Brown County Hospital, NE - $1000
Honorable Mention: St. Vincent Hospital, CO - $500
The contest ran approximately 4-6 weeks. Submissions came from employees, patients and community members. athenahealth was impressed with a video the hospital created and submitted. It was a team effort and many employees participated in its creation. Nicki Cleveland, Nurse Manger, did the voice over and Denise Berndt put the video together and submitted it to the contest.
Ellie Chase and Casey Johnson, representatives from athenahealthcare, were on hand to make the presentation of a $15,000 check. Both are marketing managers from athenahealth.
Jeremy Armstrong, CEO, commented, "This award from Athena health is a testament to the hard work and dedication that our staff and community have to MCHHS."