Novant Health received the 2006 President's Award for commitment to service excellence for patients, physicians and employees. The President's Award is the highest recognition presented by Professional Research Consultants (PRC), a nationally known healthcare research company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Each year PRC presents the President's Award to only one healthcare organization in the nation.

Brunswick Community Hospital joined Novant in March of this year and recently began utilizing the health system's service excellence programs.

Novant Health leaders received the prestigious award at PRC's annual recognition dinner held at The Hilton Omaha in Nebraska where hospital leaders from across the United States gathered to participate in the 2006 educational conference on healthcare service excellence.

Joe Inguanzo, Ph.D., President and CEO of PRC, explained why Novant was honored with his organization's top award. "There is a commitment to excellence in every arena that begins with the health system president, continues with all leaders and ultimately benefits the patient, physician and employee. Novant Health received this award for extraordinary efforts focused on putting the care back in healthcare."

On behalf of Novant hospitals, now including Brunswick Community Hospital, PRC conducts patient, employee and physician research via telephone, interviewing individuals confidentially to assess their perceptions of service. Patients rate the care provided by nurses and physicians, food, room cleanliness, specific services such as the emergency and x-ray, and other aspects related to overall quality of care. Employees rate their benefits and wages, their supervisors, teamwork among departments and the organization overall as a place to work. Physicians rate the hospital's employees, key services such as laboratory and surgery and the hospital overall as a place that supports physicians and their patients.

"By conducting this research, we can then compare ourselves to hundreds of other hospitals around the country," emphasized Denise Mihal, president of Brunswick Community Hospital. "We learn about our strengths and about areas that we can improve. And we believe in this comprehensive approach, where we prioritize all three major groups - our patients, our physicians and our own employees."

Professional Research Consultants is in its 26th year of providing opinion research for hospitals across the United States. The company also presents more specific annual awards that honor different areas within hospitals such as maternity centers, cancer units, pediatrics and outpatient surgery. At Brunswick Community Hospital, the survey process will be utilized to measure satisfaction of patients hospitalized, those who receive outpatient services and emergency center patients, in addition to employee and physician satisfaction.