At Blue Mountain Hospital in Blanding, Utah, quality work is personal.
As a critical access hospital, Blue Mountain serves its community with close relationships and a strong connection to the patients they care for. For Cari Spillman, Chief Quality Officer, that reality shapes how quality and infection prevention work gets done.
When Blue Mountain began strengthening its surgical site infection tracking using NHSN criteria, the goal was to make the information usable, timely, and relevant to the team.
It did not take long for the work to prove its value.
"We started looking at NHSN criteria for surgical site infection tracking—the kind of criteria bigger hospitals use. And it wasn’t very long before I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing.’ I saw a patient name, and I had seen her in the hospital that week. I got up out of my chair and ran over to the surgeon’s office and said, ‘Hey, are you concerned about a surgical site infection?’ And he said, ‘Yes. How did you know?’ That was the moment where I thought, this is going to work for us."
That moment showed the team they were seeing the right signals at the right time.
Blue Mountain needed a more consistent approach to surgical site infection tracking—one that could identify potential concerns without adding unnecessary complexity. The focus was on supporting clinical conversations and making sure important details were visible when they mattered.
The shift came when the data connected directly to real patients and real situations.
Cari recognized the patient immediately. The criteria aligned with what was happening in the hospital. Instead of reviewing information later, she was able to walk directly to the surgeon and ask a specific question.
The surgeon confirmed the concern.
That interaction reinforced that the process was working—surfacing relevant cases and supporting communication between quality and clinical teams.
Since then, surgical site infection tracking at Blue Mountain has become more straightforward and actionable. The team has clearer visibility into potential infections and a more consistent way to follow up.
For Blue Mountain, the value is in how the work supports daily operations—helping the team stay aware, ask the right questions, and act when it counts.
As Cari said, “This is going to work for us.”
