Hospitals release affiliation report

The annual affiliation report is part of the affiliation agreement between North Valley Hospital and Kalispell Regional Healthcare. For the first five years of the affiliation, NVH will report on the changes and benefits of the affiliation to the facility, employees, and community.

In the last year, North Valley Hospital has advanced the benefits of the affiliation between NVH and KRH. Some of these benefits outlined in previous reports include physician collaboration, services across facilities such as sleep lab and cardiopulmonary rehab, and establishing system-wide best practices.

This year, we highlight the following programs established in 2018 to improve patient care across the health care system.

Float Nurses

In March 2018, KRH established a program across the system which allowed float nurses to work at both Kalispell Regional Medical Center and North Valley Hospital. These nurses attended training and orientation at both facilities to understand the integrated care in addition to any unique procedures. Now, float nurses work wherever they are most needed, making a flexible and highly trained workforce available to patients system-wide.

PolicyStat™

In 2018 and early 2019, North Valley Hospital joined other Kalispell Regional Healthcare facilities by implementing a new web-based policy management system to improve policy access and to streamline updates system-wide. The policy management system, known as PolicyStat, will benefit all facilities and departments in creating policy harmonization across the system.

Management Council

Kalispell Regional Healthcare integrated system-wide management level meetings, which now occur quarterly at KRH. Joining leaders together to discuss high-level management issues has built stronger teams across facilities, improved communication between departments, and helped employees build on each other’s strengths.

Care Coordination

Care coordination, a program linking primary care providers with hospital staff to ensure continuity of health care, is the result of a large-scale collaboration between Kalispell Regional Medical Center and North Valley Hospital. Care coordination provides optimal outcomes when all providers, facilities, clinics, and care teams collaborate as patients navigate the health care system and care continuum, which system integration has made possible.

The affiliation report is part of the North Valley Hospital’s 2018 annual report.

Allison Linville is the Marketing and Community Relations Manager for North Valley Hospital.