WYTHEVILLE, VA. – People in rural communities face significant barriers to health care, not enough providers and often long drive times just to see them.
“People think small hospitals don’t have good quality care,” said Vicki Parks, CEO of Wythe County Community Hospital.
The Wythe County Community Hospital is busting that myth, proving their quality of care is of the highest standards.
“You know there are things we can’t do here but what we do, we do really well,” Parks said.
This past fall the hospital was evaluated for patient safety from Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade group and received the highest grade possible, a standard hundreds of hospitals are held to but fail to meet.
“When they walk in our doors, we’ve been measured on the same standards, the same protocols that the larger hospitals in urban settings have been measured on,” Parks said.
I talked to some of the physicians and nurses with the hospital and they said this is on the forefront of every interaction.
“We have a goal every day: no preventable harms,” said Wendy Campbell, director of the intensive care unit.
Wytheville is at the crossroads between surrounding urban areas, making this the first stop for many emergencies.
“A lot of times they’ll come here first,” said Barrett McLaughlin, a physician in the emergency department. “We’ll get things stabilized and then can transfer to a tertiary center from there.”
“It would be very sad to think that you had to travel over an hour, two hours to go to Roanoke or Bristol to get that immediate care that you needed,” Campbell said.
They said while Wythe County Community Hospital is a smaller, rural hospital, they will continue to strive to provide care at the highest standards.