Vail Health honored for safety and experience
Recognitions come from three national organizations

Vail Health was recently recognized for its commitment to patient safety and patient experience. The recognitions came from three different national outlets: the Leapfrog Group, Press Ganey and the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
Vail Health was awarded an “A” safety grade by the Leapfrog Group in its fall 2021 ratings, a national distinction recognizing Vail Health’s achievements protecting patients from harm and providing safer health care. Vail Health has again been named a Guardian of Excellence Award recipient by Press Ganey, for the Emergency Department’s high marks in patient experience.
“Across all departments, Vail Health staff are dedicated to creating a safe and caring atmosphere for our patients and fellow staff members,” Vail Health President and CEO Will Cook said in a statement. “These recent recognitions from various national entities is a welcome acknowledgment of their efforts. … I am proud and honored to work with such incredible people.”
Representatives from Vail Health Hospital on Nov. 11 also accepted the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Pathway to Excellence designation at a national event in Atlanta, Georgia. The Pathway to Excellence designation is a global credential that highlights Vail Health Hospital’s commitment to creating a healthy work environment where nurses feel empowered and valued.
“It was an honor and a privilege to attend the Pathway to Excellence and National Magnet Conference in Atlanta, along with leaders from our nursing team, to accept Vail Health Hospital’s award,” said Amanda Veit, Vail Health COO and chief nursing officer. “Our nursing staff has dedicated years to creating an exceptional culture and consistently focuses on supporting the personal well-being of our nurses and ensuring our nursing staff has a voice in decision-making.”

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The Leapfrog Group is an independent, national watchdog organization committed to health care quality and safety. The Safety Grade assigns grades of A through F to all general hospitals across the country and is updated every six months. It is based on a hospital’s performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections and other harm to patients in their care. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,600 U.S. acute-care hospitals. The Hospital Safety Grade’s methodology is peer reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public.
The Guardian of Excellence Award recognizes top-performing health care organizations that have achieved the 95th percentile or above for performance in patient experience. This is the second consecutive year that Vail Health has been recognized by Press Ganey, as Vail Health received the award for the first time in 2020. It is determined by feedback directly from patients through the Press Ganey surveys.
The award honors health care systems that consistently sustained performance in the top 5% of all Press Ganey clients for each reporting period during the course of one year and represents an important recognition from the industry’s leader in measuring, understanding, and improving the delivery of care.
For more information, go to VailHealth.org.