At Valor Health, we are working hard to fulfill our mission to improve the wellness and health of all generations in our region, today and into the future. We pride ourselves on our integrity and compassionate service that honors the individual dignity of each person we serve. We are excited about our opportunities to support a healthy, vibrant Gem Community.
Our transformation as a health system, more than only a hospital, continued in 2019. Our efforts are focused on wellness and helping when people are sick. In FY2019, 14% of our interactions were in the hospital, and 86% were outpatient. We had almost 300 hospital admissions, including 47 newborns, and over 900 total patient days, part of our growing extended rehabilitation (“swing bed/transitional care”) program. We performed just under 500 surgeries, predominately in orthopedics, general surgery, podiatry, and gynecology. There were over 10,000 visits with primary care and about 5,000 urgent care visits. We had another 5,000 visits with our Board-Certified doctors in our ER, in addition to 36,000 lab tests and well over 8,000 imaging studies, including X-ray, CT, MRI, and Ultrasound.
In November, we reported an all-time high for patient satisfaction…96% of patients said they would “definitely recommend” Valor to their friends and family! We also recognized our 11 Customer Service Employee of the Year nominees, those who best exemplified our values in patient interactions. Our team is over 150 employees strong, and in 2019, we contributed almost $8 Million in wages and benefits to employee residents of Gem County.
Some other 2019 highlights include creating the Valor Heath Foundation, providing free athletic physicals and concussion testing to Gem County student-athletes, providing sideline care to Emmett High student-athletes, delivering more hours of community events and education, bringing back the Community Health Fair, investing in staff training and simulation, and progressing toward Patient-Centered Primary Care Medical Home certification.
In 2020, we will focus on service growth to meet the needs of community members, primarily by recruiting physicians and expanding our locations to include a clinic near Highway 16. We will keep investing in our staff, the people who earn the trust of our patients every day with their amazing skills and compassion. We will continue implementing operational improvements, making us more efficient and effective in achieving our goals.
We are grateful for the opportunities to care for the residents of Gem County. When asked, ‘Who owns Valor Health?” I get to emphasize that Valor is a Gem County entity whose outstanding Board of Trustees are appointed by the County Commissioners, elected by Gem County residents — you are an “owner” of Valor Health. We receive no tax dollars and work hard to serve our Gem County neighbors. We will continue to be fiscally responsible, intending to support this community for generations. If you want to learn more about Valor Health, please give us a call or visit https://www.valorhealth.org/.