Awards and Accreditations
At Merit Health Natchez, providing quality healthcare isn't only our focus - it's also our mission. The following accreditations and designations validate the quality of care provided by employees and members of the medical staff.
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The Joint Commission
Merit Health Natchez has earned The Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval® for Hospital Accreditation by demonstrating continuous compliance with its performance standards. The Gold Seal of Approval® is a symbol of quality that reflects an organization's commitment to providing safe and effective patient care.
Accredited Chest Pain Center
Hospitals that have earned American College of Cardiology (ACC) Chest Pain Center Accreditation have proven exceptional competency in treating patients with heart attack symptoms. They have streamlined their systems from admission to evaluation to diagnosis and treatment all the way through to appropriate post-discharge care and recommendations and assistance in patient lifestyle changes. To maintain accreditation as a Chest Pain Center, Merit Health Natchez received excellent scores for its ability to assess, diagnose and treat patients who may be experiencing a heart attack.
Accredited Mammography, Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
The American College of Radiology (ACR) gold seal of accreditation represents the highest level of image quality and patient safety. It is awarded only to facilities meeting ACR Practice Parameters and Technical Standards after a peer-review evaluation by board-certified physicians and medical physicists who are experts in the field. Image quality, personnel qualifications, adequacy of facility equipment, quality control procedures and quality assurance programs are assessed.
CLIA Certified Laboratory
The objective of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) program is to ensure quality laboratory testing. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulates all laboratory testing performed on humans in the U.S. through CLIA.
Joint Commission Accredited Laboratory
Joint Commission standards are the basis of an objective evaluation process and can help organizations measure, assess and improve performance. The standards focus on important patient, individual or resident care and organization functions that are essential to providing safe, high-quality care. The Joint Commission is the gold standard in health care accreditation, with more than 60 years of experience across a range of health care settings. Joint Commission accreditation, which is designed to uphold the highest level of patient care, provides the most comprehensive evaluation process in the industry.
Advanced Certification for Acute Stroke Ready Hospital
Merit Health Natchez has earned Advanced Disease-Specific Care Certification for Acute Stroke Ready Hospital from The Joint Commission and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. The certification recognizes hospitals equipped to treat stroke patients with timely, evidence-based care prior to transferring them to a Primary or Comprehensive Stroke Center.
A Joint Commission and American Heart Association/American Stroke Association certified Acute Stroke Ready Hospital is the foundation for acute stroke care in our community, allowing us to be the first stop on a patient's acute stroke journey.
Three Star Designation
Merit Health Natchez earned a three-star score for quality from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for 2021. The star rating reflects the hospital's high standards of quality and focus on improving patient outcomes.
The overall hospital rating is based on data publicly reported on CMS's Hospital Compare tool, https://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcare. The star rating summarizes a variety of measures across five areas of quality into a single star rating for each hospital. Once reporting thresholds are met, a hospital's overall star rating is calculated using only those measures for which data are available. The average is about 37 measures.