Southwest Health announced they have been named a 2022 Human Experience (HX) Guardian of Excellence Award® winner by Press Ganey, the global leader in healthcare experience solutions and services.

This award is part of Press Ganey's annual ranking of the country's top hospitals and health systems, according to performance in patient and employee experience. With this endorsement, Southwest Health is recognized as a leader in the healthcare industry.

Southwest Health has received two awards from Press Ganey: the Guardian of Excellence Award for Inpatient care and the Guardian of Excellence Award for Employee Experience. The Guardian of Excellence Award for Inpatient care awards the top 5% of hospitals for inpatient experience scores. The Guardian of Excellence Award for Employee Experience honors facilities that achieved the 95th percentile or higher in engagement on census surveys.

Winning this award means Southwest Health is in the top 5% for both inpatient experience scores and employee engagement. Press Ganey works with more than 41,000 healthcare facilities to reduce patient suffering and enhance caregiver resilience to improve the overall safety, quality, and experience of care. Employee engagement scores honor facilities that achieved the 95th percentile.

Southwest Health CEO Dan Rohrbach spoke about how meaningful this award is for the hospital's employees and the community in general, per a press release:

With this award, Press Ganey has validated all the hard work Southwest Health has done in the past year to care for our patients. This award is a direct result of our commitment to listening to patients, keeping safety top-of-mind, and living our mission of caring for life.

In December, Southwest Health announced that they would begin offering allergy testing. Allergy testing is now available through their Specialty Clinic.

Southwest Health is located at 1400 Eastside Road in Platteville, WI. Read more about all their services on their website.

Answers to 25 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

Vaccinations for COVID-19 began being administered in the U.S. on Dec. 14, 2020. The quick rollout came a little more than a year after the virus was first identified in November 2019. The impressive speed with which vaccines were developed has also left a lot of people with a lot of questions. The questions range from the practical—how will I get vaccinated?—to the scientific—how do these vaccines even work?

Keep reading to discover answers to 25 common COVID-19 vaccine questions.