PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center’s pathology department has been accredited for another two years by the College of American Pathologists.
The hospital also has been re-certified as a Level 3 trauma center and has received a Five-Star award for its Community Value Index by Cleverly & Associates, a health care financial consulting firm.
Hospital CEO Eric Lewis said the pathology laboratory was submitted to “a rigorous survey, the hardest survey for us to pass” by the pathologists’ organization.
“It’s really good news because we were able to go against the national standards and came out very well,” he said.
The pathology department, headed by Dr. Josephine Zuarte and laboratory Administrative Director Steven Blackham, has 65 employees.
“They just do an outstanding job, and this report is something we should be very proud of,” Lewis said.
“Our lab is very proud of it, and I’m very proud of our lab.”
The state’s certification of OMC as a Level 3 trauma center ranks it with Harrison Memorial Hospital in Bremerton.
The state’s only Level 1 center is Harborview Medical Center.
Level 2 centers are in Bellingham, Everett, Fort Lewis, Olympia, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Tri-Cities, Walla Walla, Wenatchee and Yakima.
Key to retaining the certification, Lewis said, is 24-hour coverage by general and orthopedic surgeons.
“That is a huge deal that we should not take for granted,” he said.
The five-star award was neither applied nor competed for, according to Assistant Administrator Rhonda Curry.
OMC, she said, ranked in the top 20 percent of similar-size hospitals in the nation for financial strength and reinvestment, cost of care and pricing.
Cleverly & Associates rated hospitals using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
