CENTRE —  Earlier this month a third-party surveyor working for the governmental organization that oversees Medicare and Medicaid sent a team with a 1,200-item-long list of potential shortcomings to Cherokee Medical Center.

Five days later, they left without ever making a single mark on their checklist.

“They found zero clinical deficiencies, which as an administrator I know is practically unheard of,” said CEO Patrick Trammell. “These surveyors are proficient and they will usually find something. They didn't find anything.”

Trammell, who has been in charge at Cherokee Medical Center for around 18 months, said a survey by the Joint Commission can be a stressful situation “if you're not really on top of your game”.

But Trammell said no one at Cherokee Medical Center—which is licensed for 60 beds and has about 150 employees—felt anxious about the presence of the surveyors.

“Our staff is incredible and they are so confident with the things they do that, when the surveyors showed up, they figured out really fast that we were comfortable talking with them because we feel comfortable with the job we are doing,” Trammell said.

Trammell explained exactly who and what the Joint Commission is, and what the periodic surveys mean to medical care professionals.

“The Joint Commission is what is called a deeming authority for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS,” Trammell said. “The CMS presides over Medicare and Medicaid and has a set of standards, 1,200-plus items, that they want a hospital to be proficient in, in order to be able to effectively treat Medicare patients.”

Trammell said the list includes everything from a process for ensuring physicians and staff are properly trained and credentialed, all the way down to keeping temperature logs for refrigerators.

“The list runs the full gamut of services,” Trammell said.

He added that said no one ever knows exactly when surveyors from the Joint Commission will show up, other than knowing the process typically takes place every three years or so.

“When they come in you either get accredited, you get a probationary period, or they could even shut you down,” Trammell said. “They come in with surveyors who are physicians, nurses and certified facilities engineers, and they are literally crawling all over the place, digging through charts, interviewing staff members.”

Trammell said the spotless bill of health from the surveyors is a testament to the professionalism and dedication of the staff at Cherokee Medical Center.

“This is an exciting thing for us because we feel like we have a good hospital,” Trammell said. “Still, it's nice to hear somebody else say it, especially when their job is to come in and tell you what you are not doing right.”

Trammell is aware that some people who live in Cherokee County head out of town, perhaps to Gadsden or Rome, Ga., to receive medical care, especially when a hospital stay might be involved. He said that need not be the case.

“A lot of folks have never experienced what a real personal, one-on-one approach to medical care can feel like,” Trammell said. “This survey is great for the people here, who all work really hard, to stick out their chests and say 'not only do we do a great job here, these folks have told us we do an exceptional job'.”

The Joint Commission doesn't hand out numerical scores, Trammell said, but the company that owns and operates Cherokee Medical Center's did after the surveyors left.

“It's nice to be able to benchmark yourself against other hospitals, and our parent company gave us a 98,” Trammell said. “We consistently rank between the 85th and 95th percentile, nationally, in patient satisfaction. That's pretty strong and we've come to expect that level of satisfaction here.”

Trammell, 34, a Florida native who has co-managed larger hospitals in Birmingham and Granbury, Texas before relocating to northeast Alabama, said the quality of the people he works with here make it easy to see why Cherokee Medical Center had such a strong showing.

“Since before I got here, this place has had a great team of caregivers,” Trammell said. “And the administrative team is one of the best I've ever worked with.”