The hospital at Florida's Eglin Air Force Base has been named best in the entire force for the second time in three years, according to the Northwest Florida Daily News.
Eglin Hospital, the Air Force 96th Medical Group's main facility, received the Hospital of the Year Award again despite undergoing renovation and construction. But Air Force Col. Mark Batcho, the hospital's administrator, believes the challenges the facility and its staff have faced from the construction work has actually made his team work harder.
"It's like a lot of us; when folks face challenges, they get really productive," Batcho said. "We try to do as much as we can with the capabilities that we have."
While serving both active duty and retired military personnel and their dependents, the facility also is partnered with the nearby Eglin Veterans Affairs Clinic.
"They are all beneficiaries; they have all served," Batcho said. "When we can partner with them [and offer] procedures where they have demand and we have supply, we are happy to be able to do that."
