Baptist Memorial Hospital -Forrest City and Baptist Home Care and Hospice have announced they have earned accreditation from a major accrediting organization.
The Gold Seal of Approval comes from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
According to Paul Cade, administrator and CEO of BMH-Forrest City, they achieved accreditation by demonstrating compliance with the organization's national standards for health care quality and safety.
"We sought accreditation for our organization because we want to demonstrate our commitment to patient safety and quality care," said Cade. "Baptist's success with the Joint Commission is a reflection of the quality of our physicians, nurses, pharmacists, housekeepers and all other departments and staff."
Dr. Curt Patton, executive director of the hospital accreditation program, said the standards are in place for the purpose of improving the quality of health care.
"Above all, the national standards are intended to stimulate continuous, systematic and organization-wide improvement in an organization's performance and the outcomes of care," said Patton. "The community should be proud that Baptist-Forrest City is focusing on the most challenging goal -- to continuously raise quality and safety to higher levels."
BMH-FC is a part of Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation, based in Memphis. The 118-bed acute-care facility's services include geriatric behavioral health, home care and hospice, general surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology, orthopedics, urology, radiology, cardiology, outpatient rehabilitation and nuclear medicine among others. The hospital also provides a 24-hour, physician-staffed emergency department.
According to a press release,, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare organization was founded in 1951, and seeks to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations.
The Joint Commission evaluates and accredits nearly 17,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including about 9,000 hospitals and home care organizations, and 8,000 health care organizations that provide long term care, assisted living, behavioral health care, laboratory and ambulatory care services. The Joint Commission also accredits health plans, integrated delivery networks, and other managed care entities.
An independent, not-for-profit organization, the Joint Commission is the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.
The Forrest City City Council will meet Tuesday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m.
The main agenda item is the 2004 budget. There is also a resolution on a policing policy and permission to bid on the condemnation of a structure.
Also on the agenda are Fire Chief Dan Curtner and Jim Beazley, manager of the Forrest City Water Utility, who will discuss fire plugs at the Municipal Sports Complex.
A man posing as a police officer stole over $100 in cash from a man eating breakfast inside a restaurant at an area truckstop on Friday morning.
The St. Francis County Sheriff's Department reports Ricardo Cortes of Milwaukee, Wisc., was inside the Burger King restaurant at the Truckstops of America location at Shell Lake when he was approached by the suspect.
The suspect allegedly told Cortes that he was a police officer and asked to see his driver's license. When Cortes pulled his license from his pocket, the suspect reportedly grabbed $105 from him and fled to a nearby car.
Cortes described the suspect as a 25-year-old black male, six feet tall and weighing about 200 pounds. He was wearing a black shirt, black pants and white tennis shoes.
In order to take care of veterans who wish to claim medical expenses for 2003, the Veterans' Service Office at the St. Francis County Courthouse will be open every day this week, from Monday, Jan. 5 through Friday, Jan. 9.
Office hours are 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
After this week, the office will open at its regular times -- Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m.. until 4:30 p.m.