Iron Mountain VA Wins National Best in Overall Experience Award
Credit to: Oscar G. Johnson’s Public Affairs
IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich. – The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Veteran Experience Office announced that the Oscar G. Johnson VA Medical Center topped all other VA facilities
nationwide and has received the 2020 Best in Overall Experience Award for providing patients with outstanding healthcare experiences.
This is the third nationwide patient experience award in the past three years for the medical center. In both 2018 and 2019, the facility was awarded the Best Experience Award
over all level III facilities in the nation.
This year, OGJVAMC was recognized as number one out of 170 VA medical centers nationwide as the top performer in patient and employee experience. The facility was judged on leadership,
culture, listening to the voice of the veteran, patient communications, employee engagement, veteran trust, environment, and measurement and improvement.
“Earning the trust of our veterans is a major component of our noble mission, and a focal point
of the culture at our medical center,” said Jim Rice, medical center director. “What makes me
most proud is that our staff strive every day to improve every veteran’s experience at our medical
center and our Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) across the Upper Peninsula and
northern Wisconsin.”
Throughout the pandemic, the medical center continued to focus on engaging employees through monthly employee town hall meetings, leadership training and mentoring, veteran
-centric training, employee-initiated improvement projects, and recognition of staff achievements.
OGJVAMC consistently ranks nationally as one of the top five VHA facilities for employee satisfaction since 2016 and was nationally ranked first and third for Best Place to Work in 2018
and 2019.
“Our employees feel passionate about serving veterans,” said Jim Rice, medical center director,
who accepted the award on behalf of the facility. “They know that when the focus is on
providing quality care to the veteran, the numbers and metrics will take care of themselves.”
Outside of the VA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) uses a five-star quality
rating system to measure the experiences Medicare beneficiaries have with their health plan and
health care system — the Star Rating Program. Health plans are rated on a scale of one to five
stars, with five being the highest. CMS has rated OGJVAMC as a 5-star facility for patient
experience every year since 2017.