SYLACAUGA – For the past five years, the Coosa Valley Medical Center has committed itself to providing – and improving – the quality health care it offers patients.

That commitment has resulted in numerous awards for numerous divisions and teams throughout the hospital, making CVMC one of the premier health care providers in east central Alabama.

CVMC and numerous community partners celebrated the hospital’s commitment to quality health care during an awards celebration Tuesday.

Amy Price, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer for the CVMC, said she was pleased the hospital and members of the community were able to recognize the accomplishments of the medical center’s staff.

“External validation is important,” Price said. “Because that validation allows us to compare ourselves against our peers. We’re not just telling our community, ‘You can get the best health care here.’ We’re showing the community, ‘You can get the best health care here.’”

The CVMC unveiled five banners in its main lobby as part of the celebration. Each of the banners recognized a specific award or recognition the hospital received and date from 2011 all the way through 2014.

The acute care team was recognized as a top performer by the Joint Commission in 2013 and ’14, while the intensive care unit was awarded a bronze-level Beacon Award for Excellence in 2012 by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

CVMC was recognized for its stroke care when it received the Silver Stroke Award in 2013 by the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association. The HomeCare unit was recognized as being an elite agency – a distinction held by the top 25 percent of said units in the nation – in 2011 and ’14.

Finally, the hospital’s senior behavioral health program was honored after having won the 2013 Community Education Program of the Year Award.

Hospital CEO Glenn Sisk said such awards are to be celebrated both within the hospital and the surrounding community. Still, they represent only a fraction of the total work that is put in every day by the 640 hospital employees.

“I think they are indicative (of the care provided by the hospital),” Sisk said. “But I would say, in addition to that, we have many other things that happen here at the organization that are never recognized at a public level like this.”

Even so, Mike Landers, interim director of the Sylacauga Chamber of Commerce, said such awards reflect the hospital’s overall commitment to improving the quality of the care it provides.

“It provides excellent health care. But also, it’s an economic force that we absolutely must have in our city,” Landers said. “It’s critical to the success of this town that this hospital be successful.”

That success of the hospital was not an overnight phenomenon.

Price attributed it to years’ worth of strategic planning and management, all of which was designed to put the hospital exactly where it is now.

“Five years ago, we recognized to gain the confidence of our community, we’ve got to become competitive among our peer group,” Price said. “And so what happened, that work started five years ago, but 18 months ago, we started reaping what we were sowing.”