Craig Thompson, P.T., FACHE, CEO of Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare in Clinton, Missouri, and 2025 MHA Board Chair (left), and Jon D. Doolittle, MHA President and CEO (right), present a 2025 Aim For Excellence Award to Heather Olson, R.N., Director of Primary Care Services at Community Hospital-Fairfax. (Submitted photo)

Community Hospital-Fairfax 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 November 5 at MHA’s 103rd annual convention in St. Charles, Missouri.

“In the northwest Missouri communities around Fairfax, only 20%  of  Medicare  beneficiaries were taking advantage of the program’s annual wellness visit,” said Jon D. Doolittle, MHA President and CEO. “What started as a program to improve engagement and increase participation has grown into a window to understand and address the drivers of good health.”

Using an evolving set of outreach tactics, Community Hospital-Fairfax built awareness of Medicare’s annual wellness screening. In addition, they reinvented the visit – allowing for additional clinician-patient time and expanding the discussion to include not only wellness and chronic disease management, but nonclinical drivers of poor health. Chronic care management and screening rates improved, resulting in better lives for community members. In addition, the hospital’s increased engagement with community partners has allowed it to connect patients with the nonclinical services and support they need to maintain their health. By 2024, two-thirds of the hospital’s Medicare beneficiaries participated in an annual wellness visit.

“It has been a joy to see the work of this team unfold and the tremendous impact it has had on our patients,” said Ann Schlueter, CEO of Community Hospital-Fairfax. “We believe medicine was meant to be delivered neighbor to neighbor working together to improve health. This program has given us the opportunity to deliver on that passion and do our part to improve the lives of those we serve. We are grateful to MHA for recognizing these efforts and to our community whose support makes the work we do possible.”