Charleston Area Medical Center 

Health System

The Charleston Area Medical Center Health System (CAMCHS) in 

Charleston, W.Va., operates four hospitals within the Charleston Area 

Medical Center (CAMC): CAMC General Hospital, CAMC Memorial 

Hospital, CAMC Women and Children’s Hospital, and CAMC Teays 

Valley Hospital. The system also includes the CAMC Foundation; the 

CAMC Health and Education Research Institute; document, cancer, 

weight loss, and physical therapy centers; and the physician clinics 

of Integrated Health Care Providers, Inc. Services at CAMC include a

Level 1 Trauma Center, top-level neonatal intensive care unit and 

pediatric intensive care, West Virginia’s only kidney transplant center,

and subspecialists in every service line. CAMCHS operates with a

revenue of $956 million and a workforce of just under 7,000 employees

(including nearly 800 physicians) and more than 300 volunteers.

System-Wide Commitment to Superior Care • For the past two years, CAMC has received the Distinguished 

Hospital Award from Healthgrades, a national service that rates 

the performance of physicians, hospitals, and health care providers. 

• CAMC ranked in the top 5 percent among local and regional 

competitors for overall quality in inpatient performance in both 

2014 and 2015, based on the Healthgrades database, as well as 

those of two similar rating services, Premier and Comparion 

Medical Analytics. All three companies have ranked CAMC in 

the top 10 percent nationally, also for quality inpatient service, 

since 2012. 

• CAMC achieved top 10 percent status for patient safety in 2013 

and 2014, according to the patient safety indicator composite 

from the federal government’s Agency for Healthcare Research 

and Quality. 

• According to the Comparion Medical Analytics national database, 

CAMC ranked in the top 10 percent nationally for best care and 

lowest mortality for trauma/orthopedic patients in 2012 and 2013 

(the latest data available). 

• Based on Premier data, CAMC has outperformed the top 25 percent

of hospitals nationally in avoiding unnecessary readmissions, 

consistently lowering its rate of readmissions since 2011.

Compassion and Consideration for All

• When surveyed about which area hospital “provides the highestquality care,” local residents rank CAMC first by tenfold over its 

closest competitor. 

• CAMC ranks in the top 10 percent nationally for overall outpatient 

satisfaction in all areas. These results are based on the national 

Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) 

survey, of which CAMC was a voluntary and early participant.

2015 Award Recipient

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 

Highlights

• For the past two years, the Charleston Area Medical Center 

Health System has ranked in the top 5 percent for quality 

inpatient service by Healthgrades, a national service that 

rates the performance of physicians, hospitals and health 

care providers, and received the group’s Distinguished 

Hospital Award. 

• CAMC ranks in the top 10 percent nationally for outpatient 

satisfaction in all areas, including wait times, communication,

staff courtesy and respect, doctor time with patient, and 

information given to patients for self-care.

• CAMC’s Sepsis Performance Improvement Team saved 

1,798 lives from 2011 to 2014 through increased awareness 

and early identification, better than the national top 

10 percent level since 2012.

• As West Virginia’s largest provider of uncompensated care, 

CAMC exceeds local and national benchmarks for such 

activity, reflecting its mission to provide the best health care 

to every patient, every day. CAMCHS’s commitment to 

improving the health of its neighbors is demonstrated by 

community benefit expenditures that exceed the national 

average by 76 percent and total over $115 million annually.

 
Baldrige Performance Excellence Program • National Institute of Standards and Technology • Department of Commerce 

2015 Award Recipient

Charleston Area Medical Center 

Health System

• CAMC ranks in the top 10 percent nationally for its patient discharge 

process, according to the CMS benchmark. Staff use specially 

designed resources such as the Service Excellence Playbook 

to ensure that discharged patients have the verbal and written 

information they need to manage their care at home as appropriate.

Strong Patient Focus from Satisfied Employees

• Since 2012, according to Healthcare Performance Solutions (HPS, 

a consulting and advisory services firm that helps hospitals and 

health systems improve organizational performance), CAMCHS 

has ranked in the top 10 percent nationally on the HPS patient focus 

index, a rating based on staff understanding of the organizational 

culture and the vision to “deliver the best care.”

• Since 2010, CAMC’s employee turnover rate has been better than 

the U.S. benchmark set by Nursing Solutions Inc., a national 

hospital staffing service. Despite the challenge of a limited 

workforce pool and difficulty recruiting from out-of-state, CAMC 

has maintained a superior workforce by committing to a “growing 

our own” environment in which qualified internal candidates are 

selected and trained to fill critical vacancies.

• Honoring a commitment to continuing education and a learning 

culture, the CAMC Foundation provides educational grants for 

employees to further their education in medicine, nursing, or other 

fields that support CAMC’s workforce needs. Participation in this 

program has been growing steadily since 2012.

• Each CAMC recruiting and orientation process contains a diversity 

awareness module that goes beyond traditional awareness and 

incorporates generational and community needs, including special 

considerations for the residents of Appalachia.

Quality Service Supported by Financial Wellness 

• Despite an above-average need in its service area for 

uncompensated care, CAMC has maintained an average operating 

margin of 5.2 percent since 2011, exceeding the Truven Health 

Analytics national benchmark for teaching hospitals, as well as 

those from other rating services.

• CAMC is the market leader in all service lines, including medicine, 

cardiovascular, mother/baby, surgery, and trauma care. The hospital 

touches over 51 percent of all residents within Kanawha County, 

W.Va., for inpatient, outpatient, and emergency room services.

• Over the past four years, supply chain contract negotiations have 

saved $6 million while annual and cumulative cost-reduction 

efforts yielded $12 million in savings.

Strategic Planning + Process Efficiency = 

Prescription for Success

• CAMC reviews its key performance measures annually for 

alignment with the organizational vision and revises them to 

address strategic objectives and goals. 

• CAMC’s Sepsis Performance Improvement Team saved 1,798 

lives from 2011 to 2014 through increased awareness and early 

identification, better than the Premier national top 10 percent 

level since 2012.

• Supply-chain management using service-line analytics has 

resulted in $300,000 in annual savings. In addition, the use of 

Lean methodology to eliminate batching in the production line 

for IV pharmacy medication waste resulted in annual savings 

of $134,000, exceeding the target of a 50 percent reduction and 

totaling $670,000 to date.

A Heart as Big as the West Virginia Mountains 

• As West Virginia’s largest provider of uncompensated care, CAMC 

exceeds local and national benchmarks for such activity, reflecting 

its mission to provide the best health care to every patient, every 

day. CAMCHS’s commitment to improving the health of its 

neighbors is demonstrated by community benefit expenditures that 

exceed the national average by 76 percent and total over $115 

million annually.

• Community fundraising through the “Power of Many” campaign 

brought in $15 million for a new cancer center, adding to the 

more than $2 million raised through the annual CAMC 

Foundation campaign. 

• To improve the health of the community, work groups help 

prioritize and plan health benefit programs, and charity care 

and community benefit programs address community needs, 

including the needs for perinatal telemedicine, a child advocacy 

center, and HIV programs.

For more information:

Charleston Area Medical Center Health System 

501 Morris St., 

Charleston, WV 25326

(304) 388-5000

quality@camc.org

http://camc.org

Baldrige Performance Excellence Program

The Baldrige Program educates organizations of all sizes and 

from all sectors in organizational performance management and 

improvement. We also administer the Malcolm Baldrige National

Quality Award. Our key services are to identify and recognize 

role-model organizations, share best management practices, 

and help organizations achieve best-in-class performance levels.

We are the only public-private partnership and Presidential award 

program dedicated to improving U.S. organizations. 

For more information on Baldrige, visit www.nist.gov/baldrige,

call (301) 975-2036, or e-mail us at baldrige@nist.gov.