Watertown Regional Medical Center Earns ScionHealth’s ‘Platinum Award’

Watertown Regional is one of only four of ScionHealth’s 85 hospitals across 28 states to earn the quality program’s highest level of  achievement for 2024.

WATERTOWN, Wisconsin (May 13, 2025) – Watertown Regional Medical Center (WRMC or Watertown Regional) was honored today as one of four ScionHealth-owned hospitals to earn the “Platinum Award,” the top recognition attainable within the company’s National Quality Strategy (NQS). ScionHealth leaders presented the award at a ceremony at Watertown Regional, which is one of 85 hospitals owned by ScionHealth on campuses in 28 states. ScionHealth launched its National Quality Strategy in 2023.

“The ScionHealth National Quality Strategy provides challenging metrics and an abundance of best practices to help each hospital build upon their culture of continuous improvement that is so critical to quality care,” said Richard Keddington, CEO of Watertown Regional Medical Center. “To earn top honors in just the second year of the program is a great achievement for our hospital and a reflection of the commitment of our team to provide outstanding patient outcomes and experiences. We are competing against some exceptional hospitals and exceptional teams of healthcare professionals across the country, so this is quite an honor for Watertown Regional and our community.”

The ScionHealth National Quality Strategy promotes best practices and measures the success of its hospitals’ quality performance over a 12-month period. The rigorous program enables and empowers hospitals to continuously improve patient care, safety, and satisfaction with an underlying goal of zero patient harm. The Platinum Award recipients for the 2024 year – Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center (Hartsville, South Carolina), Kindred Hospital Clear Lake (Webster, Texas), Kindred Hospital Paramount (California), and Watertown Regional Medical Center – outperformed all other ScionHealth hospitals while achieving exceptional quality performance.

“Watertown Regional has been a top-performing community hospital since parent company ScionHealth’s inception in 2021, and continues to be so today,” said Russell Pigg, President of ScionHealth’s Community Hospital Division. “It isn’t a surprise to see the hospital excel in the company’s quality program – the leaders and team at Watertown keep the patient at the center of everything they do while providing essential healthcare services to the broader community. This Platinum Award is another well-deserved honor to add to the hospital’s growing list of accolades.”

Those accolades include the prestigious “A” grade for hospital safety from the Leapfrog Group, awarded to Watertown Regional May 1, Healthgrades 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Award, presented in April, and another “A” grade from Leapfrog presented as part of its Fall 2024 ratings in November. In addition, in October, Christine “Chris” Kelsey, RN – a MedSurg nurse at Watertown Regional Medical Center – was honored as one of only two recipients nationally of ScionHealth’s 2024 Monarch Caring and Community Award (the highest annual honor the company presents to its healthcare professionals). The hospital has also recently earned recent recognition from Becker’s Hospital Review, Healthgrades, and Chartis.

The ScionHealth National Quality Strategy measures hospital quality over the six domains of healthcare quality established by the Institute of Medicine. Each domain features a mix of clinical metrics and best practices that include clinical protocols, training, and leadership. The more a hospital succeeds in each category, the more likely it will achieve better results in terms of patient safety, outcomes, and experiences. Here is a brief overview of each domain, including key metrics that are scored:

• Effective – The hospital provides evidence-based care to all who could benefit, and refrains from providing services to those not likely to benefit, avoiding both underuse and misuse. Key ScionHealth metrics: success in combating sepsis, sepsis prevention training, appropriate blood utilization, and safety around drug diversion and opioid stewardship.
• Efficient – Through strong teamwork and open communication, the hospital reduces waste and allows time and resources to be optimized toward effective patient care. Key ScionHealth metrics: length-of-stay improvement, readmission rates, and antibiotic stewardship efforts.
• Equitable – The hospital’s patients should have the opportunity to achieve their highest health potential, regardless of socially determined circumstances. Key ScionHealth metrics: initiatives and progress in addressing healthcare disparities.
• Patient-Centered – The hospital’s patients are its top priority. The hospital cares for their physical comfort and emotional well-being and respects patient and family preferences and values. By involving patients and families in care-plan development, the hospital improves healing and recovery. Key ScionHealth metrics: HCAHPS patient survey results (administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services), effective implementation of foundational behaviors, bedside shift reports, rounding best practices, and more.
• Safe – By approaching patient safety initiatives holistically and systemically, the hospital strives to make safe care ordinary and routine. Key ScionHealth metrics: assessment of areas of harm reduction such as preventing/reducing falls, central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and C. difficile (a colon infection); improvement in safety event reporting, and related safety training.
• Timely – Timeliness of care is a crucial aspect of improving patient outcomes. By accurately assessing and appropriately addressing the urgency of care, the hospital strives to reduce harmful delays and minimize waste. Key ScionHealth metrics: improvement in Emergency Department throughput and primary care access, among other things.

“The ScionHealth National Quality Strategy challenges each hospital and each team member to ingrain quality and safety in everything they do,” said Dean French, Chief Medical Officer at ScionHealth. “The program is specific, measurable, and adaptive – the continuous improvement and best practice-sharing it encourages from within our family of hospitals positively impacts the entire organization. We were thrilled to experience the year-over-year improvement achieved by Watertown Regional and so many of our hospitals, and excited to see how the progress we’ve made on our quality journey continues to elevate patient care.”

About Watertown Regional Medical Center
Watertown Regional Medical Center (WRMC) has been providing the residents of Dodge and Jefferson counties in southeast Wisconsin with excellent healthcare for over 115 years. By placing patients’ needs first, services have grown to include Emergency, Primary Care, Women’s Health, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, Heart and Vascular, Neurology, Pulmonology, Ophthalmology, and many other services. Watertown Regional Medical Center is a joint venture between the Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation and ScionHealth. For more information and to see a complete list of the services offered, visit www.watertownregional.com.

About ScionHealth
ScionHealth is committed to delivering high-quality, patient-centered hospital care by empowering the hands that heal to do what they do best. The health system is focused on driving innovation, serving its communities, and investing in people and technology to deliver compassionate patient care and excellent health outcomes. Headquartered in Louisville, ScionHealth operates 85 hospital campuses, including 68 long-term acute care hospitals and 17 short-term acute care hospitals, as well as senior living locations across 28 states. For more information, visit ScionHealth.com.