MU Health Care’s Capital Region Medical Center Honored With MHA’s Aim For Excellence Award
MU Health Care’s Capital Region Medical Center, in Jefferson City, Mo., has been honored with the Missouri Hospital Association’s Aim for Excellence Award. Established in 2016, the Aim for Excellence Award recognizes hospital innovation that improves patient outcomes. The award was presented Nov. 5 at MHA’s 103rd Annual Convention in St. Charles, Mo.
“A hospital’s emergency department is often the ‘front door’ of the hospital for patients,” said Jon D. Doolittle, MHA President and CEO. “When the ED is crowded, and the environment is challenging for patients, families and front-line staff, it can be difficult to achieve healing.”
Capital Region Medical Center’s ED leaders identified that the hospital’s leave-without-being-seen rate was significantly higher than the national benchmark. This gap was inconsistent with quality goals and unacceptable to hospital leaders. To address the challenge, the Capital Region Medical Center ED Throughput Committee reviewed key metrics such as LWBS rates, door-to-doctor times, patient arrival heat maps and patient experience data. To reduce LWBS rates, stakeholders throughout the hospital worked to reorganize ED capacity — including additional beds and condition-specific space — and adjust the staffing matrix focusing on empowerment and multidisciplinary collaboration. The project resulted in a nearly 50% decrease in LWBS, with positive reverberations throughout the hospital and significant patient satisfaction score gains.
“This award is truly a team accomplishment — a testament to what happens when nurses, physicians and leaders across our system come together with a shared purpose,” said MU Health Care CEO Ric Ransom.
Photo caption: Craig Thompson, P.T., FACHE, CEO of Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare in Clinton, Mo., and 2025 MHA Board Chair, (left) and Jon D. Doolittle, MHA President and CEO of the Missouri Hospital Association (right), present Shanon Fucik, R.N., MBA, Chief Nurse Executive at MU Health Care Health System in Columbia, Mo., a 2025 Aim for Excellence Award.
Two organizations, Bothwell Regional Health Center, in Sedalia, Mo., and SSM Health in St. Louis, were recognized with Aim For Excellence Award Honorable Mentions.
The Missouri Hospital Association is a nonprofit association in Jefferson City that represents 136 Missouri hospitals. In addition to representation and advocacy on behalf of its membership, the association offers continuing education programs on current health care topics and seeks to educate the public about health care issues.