LIHUE — Providing Kauai’s residents and visitors with the best health care possible has been Jen Chahanovich’s mission from day one at Wilcox Medical Center.
“We are committed to ensuring our community has access to the health care services they need right here at home without having to travel to Oahu or the mainland.” said Chahanovich, president and CEO of Wilcox Medical Center.
This commitment to excellence saw Wilcox Medical Center named among the Top 100 Rural & Community Hospitals in the nation for 2017.
Wilcox was the only Hawaii-based hospital named to the Top 100 list this year.
“We are extremely proud to be the only hospital in Hawaii to receive this recognition. It’s a good thing for us. It’s good for the staff because they feel pride,” Chahanovich said. “At the end of the day, it says that we’re doing the right things for the community.”
The Top 100 rural and community hospitals that were named to the list are considered top performers in managing financial risk, achieving higher quality, securing better outcomes, increasing patient satisfaction and keeping operation costs low, according to a news release.
The list was compiled by the National Rural Health Association’s Rural Health Policy Institute, iVantage Health Analytics and The Chartis Center for Rural Health.
While Chahanovich did say that Wilcox does its best to make sure that its patients are in the best place for medical support on Kauai, she does recognize that Wilcox does not have every avenue of treatment available to them.
But even though Wilcox may not be the biggest medical facility in the state, she feels that they can provide the proper customer support to make a patient’s experience as easy as possible.
“Our mission is to create a healthier Hawaii and we are working to do that with a focus on the needs of our community here on Kauai,” Chahanovich said. “This distinction recognizes these unique challenges faced by rural and community hospitals and the work being done across the country to care for our smaller communities.”
Chahanovich was pleased when she heard that Wilcox was recognized for its work, but feels that work on a small island is never done, and the push to provide medical service to its patients will continue.
“Being part of a smaller community provides the opportunity for us to truly connect with the patients we serve and gain a greater understanding of the health care needs we can address,” she said.
