Cullman Regional Quality Initiatives Are Saving Lives
With multiple active quality initiatives in place including one that is credited with saving hundreds of lives, Cullman Regional is achieving high marks from national healthcare quality programs.
Cullman Regional saved an estimated 350 lives from January 2017 to July of this year by following best practice guidelines for sepsis care set by The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS). The hospital’s high performance in this quality metric earned it a spot in the CMS Top 10% Performance rankings.
Sepsis is the leading cause of death in hospitals and has been a priority quality measure with CMS since 2015. Each year at least 1.7 million adults develop sepsis and at least 350,000 adults die as a result.
Cullman Regional also ranks as a CMS Top 10% Performance hospital for outpatient colonoscopy screening. The hospital consistently beats both national and state benchmarks in the remaining CMS quality initiatives which include stroke care, ER wait times and hospital-acquired infection rates.
“We’re making quality care more than an organizational goal,” said Cullman Regional CEO James Clements. “We’re creating a culture where providing high quality care is at the forefront of everything we do.”
With equal commitment to stroke and heart failure care, Cullman Regional recently earned three American Heart Association (AHA) Get With the Guidelines achievement awards. According to the AHA, the Get With the Guidelines program promotes consistent adherence to the latest research-driven guidelines to improve patient outcomes across cardiovascular and stroke focus areas and ultimately leads to lives saved, shorter recovery times and fewer readmissions to the hospital.
“Appropriate sepsis management, early stroke detection and treatment, and evidenced based heart failure management saves lives,” said Dr. Bill Smith, Cullman Regional Chief Medical Officer. “These awards underscore Cullman Regional’s commitment to improving survival, minimizing disability, and accelerating recovery times for our patients.”
A list and descriptions of Cullman Regional’s recent rankings and awards is below.
CMS Hospital Compare – Top 10% Performance
Sepsis Early Management Bundle – 98% (National 65% – State 64%)
Measures compliance with evidence-based management of sepsis and correlates with lives saved.
Outpatient Colonoscopy Screening – 100% (National 93% – State 92%)
Measures compliance with best practice screening colonoscopy including communication to ensure ongoing
screening at appropriate intervals.
CMS Hospital Compare – Additional Rankings Outperforming National and State
Stroke Head CT Scan Results – 91% (National 69% – State 66%)
Measures the percentage of patients with suspected stroke who have a head CT report available within
recommended time after arrival.
Median Time from ED arrival to departure – 158 minutes (National 207 minutes – State 167 minutes)
Measures the time a patient spends in the Emergency Department.
Patients Leaving the ER without being seen by a provider – 1% (National 2% – State 2%)
Measures the percentage of patients who leave the Emergency Department without being seen by a provider.
C.Diff Hospital Acquired Infection Rate – 0.143% (National 0.336% – State 0.442%)
Measures the rate of C.Diff infections acquired during a hospital stay.
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
2026 American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines® Rural Heart Failure Gold Award
2026 American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines® Rural Stroke Silver Award
2026 American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Award -Target: Stroke Honor Roll Elite -Target: Type 2 Diabetes Honor Roll