QHR client hospitals Littleton Regional Hospital (Littleton, N.H.), North Valley Hospital (Whitefish, Mont.), Northwestern Medical Center (St. Albans, Vt.) and Trigg County Hospital (Cadiz, Kent.) were recently named "Overall Best Performers".  Avatar celebrated these hospitals for their consistently high standards of patient care across multiple service lines. QHR client hospitals Gritman Medical Center (Moscow, Idaho) and Montrose Memorial Hospital (Montrose, Colo.) were also recognized for "Exceeding Patient Expectations" and "Best Practices" (Gritman).

2008 Baldrige Award winning organization Poudre Valley Health System will be appearing at the 2009 Baldrige Regional Conferences on September 15th in Milwaukee, WI and October 2nd in Cambridge, MA.  Register here.

CMS recently released new information to the hospital compare web site that reports how frequently patients return to a hospital after being discharged.

Avatar International will be holding regional symposium events in San Francisco on July 21st and in Los Angeles July 22nd.

University researchers recently published a study in the journal Health Affairs, that examines the relationship between nurse work environments and patient satisfaction.  Researchers found that better nurse work environments led to improved patient satisfaction in several ways.

We have announced the national award recipients for Overall Best Performer 2008 and Innovation Award 2008!