HARTSVILLE, South Carolina (April 13, 2026) – Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center (CPRMC or Carolina Pines) has been named a recipient of ScionHealth’s Platinum Award, the highest designation for clinical excellence within the company’s National Quality Strategy (NQS). This recognition places CPRMC among a select group of ScionHealth hospitals that achieved exceptional performance in 2025 – a noteworthy distinction given the strong quality focus across the entire system.

Carolina Pines is the only hospital in the ScionHealth system to earn the Platinum Award in all three years of the company’s National Quality Strategy.

“We are honored to again be recognized as a top performer in our company’s demanding and competitive quality program,” said Dr. Brian Sponseller, CEO of Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center. “Ranking among the best of ScionHealth in every year of its NQS program is a testament to the patient-centered, safety-first culture we’ve established at our hospital. Even as we recruit new providers and expand services to best meet the needs of the community, our team’s focus on safe, high-quality care remains steadfast and exceptional.”

A Culture of Excellence

The ScionHealth National Quality Strategy promotes best practices and measures the success of its hospitals’ quality performance over a 12-month period. The rigorous program enables and empowers hospitals to continuously improve patient care, safety, and satisfaction with an underlying goal of zero patient harm. The company’s Platinum Award recipients for the 2025 year outperformed all other ScionHealth hospitals while achieving exceptional quality performance.

“Carolina Pines continues to set the standard for ScionHealth hospitals, earning the prestigious Platinum Award every year since the inception of our National Quality Strategy,” said Russell Pigg, President, Community Hospital Division of ScionHealth. “And it’s not just standing out in our company’s quality program – Carolina Pines continues to earn recognitions nationally from organizations such as Becker’s Hospital Review and the Leapfrog Group. The team truly understands what it takes to consistently provide safe, high-quality healthcare.”

NQS and the Six Domains of Quality

The NQS framework evaluates hospitals across six essential domains of healthcare quality established by the Institute of Medicine. Carolina Pines’ Platinum status was achieved through high marks in the following areas:

• Safe: Prioritizing harm reduction by minimizing infections (CLABSI, CAUTI, C. diff) and preventing falls through advanced safety training and reporting.
• Effective: Delivering evidence-based care, specifically through excellence in sepsis prevention, appropriate blood utilization, and opioid stewardship.
• Patient-Centered: Ensuring physical comfort and emotional well-being by involving families in care plans and achieving high HCAHPS patient survey scores.
• Timely: Reducing harmful delays by optimizing Emergency Department throughput and improving access to primary care.
• Efficient: Reducing waste and maximizing resources through strong teamwork, antibiotic stewardship, and improved length-of-stay metrics.
• Equitable: Closing the gap in healthcare disparities to ensure every patient has the opportunity to achieve their highest health potential.

“The gains our hospitals have made across all six criteria since the program’s inception are validating,” said Dr. Dean French, Chief Medical Officer at ScionHealth. “Through the ScionHealth National Quality Strategy, we challenged our facilities to raise the bar in terms of patient outcomes and experiences and the safety and efficiency in which they are delivered. Only four percent of our hospitals met our highest standards in year one – nearly 20% achieved top marks in 2025, our third year of the program. Our quality initiative is producing the desired results of driving clinical and cultural best practices at Carolina Pines and across all of our hospitals.”

About Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center

As part of the ScionHealth network of hospitals, Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center (CPRMC) provides high-quality healthcare services to the people of several counties in northeastern South Carolina. Patients have come to rely on our experienced, skilled staff and physicians to provide them with the highest level of care and compassion. Through the facilities on our campus, including a 116-bed acute care hospital and an adjoining medical office building, we provide comprehensive services with two things in mind: the care and comfort of our patients. Learn more about CPRMC at www.cprmc.com/about. 

About ScionHealth

ScionHealth strives to deliver on its promise of high-quality, patient-centered hospital care by empowering the hands that heal to do what they do best. The health system is focused on driving innovation, serving its communities, and investing in people and technology to deliver compassionate patient care and excellent health outcomes. Based in Louisville, ScionHealth operates 77 hospital campuses (63 specialty hospitals and 14 community hospital campuses and associated health systems) in 26 states. For more information, please visit ScionHealth.com.