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Medicare patients treated at Distinguished Hospitals for Patient Safety
are 40 percent less likely to have an adverse, preventable event compared
with poorest-performing hospitals
TOMS RIVER, New Jersey, April 2, 2007 – Community Medical Center announced today that it has been named in an independent national research study as a recipient of the 2007 HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Patient SafetyTM, according to HealthGrades, the nation’s leading healthcare ratings company.
Community Medical Center is one of only 242 hospitals out of nearly 5,000 nationwide to receive the Distinguished Hospital Award for Patient Safety in 2007 and the only hospital in New Jersey to receive this award every year for the last three years.
Previously, it was announced that Community Medical Center was the recipient of the 2007 HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence (also for the third year in a row). As a result, Community Medical Center is one of only 85 hospitals nationally to receive both awards in 2007 and one of only 18 hospitals nationally to receive both awards during the 2005-2007 period of time.
“Receiving both the Distinguished Hospital Award for Patient Safety and for Clinical Excellence over the last three years demonstrates Community Medical Center’s strong commitment to the best possible clinical outcomes and safety for our patients,” said Mark D. Pilla, Executive Vice President, Saint Barnabas Health Care System and Executive Director, Community Medical Center. “Our physicians and staff are to be commended for their efforts in supporting our community and serving the patients who have entrusted us with their healthcare.”
James Pasquariello, President of Community Medical Center’s Medical and Dental Staff, said, “We are very proud to be a recipient of HealthGrades Patient Safety Award. Patient safety is extremely important to our physicians and the patients we treat. It is an honor for Community Medical Center to be recognized with this accolade for three years in a row for the safe, high-quality care our patients receive.”
In its Fourth Annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study, HealthGrades independently analyzed nearly 40 million Medicare patient records from federal fiscal years 2003 to 2005 using 13 patient safety indicators developed by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The patient records were obtained directly from the U.S. government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Virtually all teaching and non-teaching hospitals were analyzed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, including all non-federal hospitals that submit Medicare data.
The HealthGrades study compares the rates of key patient safety events, such as post-operative infections and preventable deaths, using AHRQ’s methodology. The methodology includes the following patient safety indicators:
- Death in low mortality Diagnostic Related Groupings (DRGs)
- Decubitus ulcer
- Failure to rescue
- Foreign body left in during procedure
- Iatrogenic pneumothorax
- Selected infections due to medical care
- Post-operative hip fracture
- Post-operative hemorrhage or hemotoma
- Post-operative physiologic and metabolic derangements
- Post-operative respiratory failure
- Post-operative pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis
- Post-operative sepsis
- Post-operative abdominal wound dehiscence
This year, a total of 242 hospitals (113 teaching and 129 non-teaching), received the 2007 Distinguished Hospital Award for Patient Safety™ from HealthGrades. If all Medicare patients had been treated at Distinguished Hospitals for Patient Safety during that period, HealthGrades’ study finds that 206,286 patient safety events, 34,393 deaths and $1.74 billion in excess costs could have been avoided. On average, patients at Distinguished Hospitals for Patient Safety are also 40 percent less likely to experience an adverse, preventable event during their stay than patients treated at the bottom-performing hospitals.
Pilla added, “The awards we have received from HealthGrades are a testament to the strong culture of exceptional care that Community Medical Center possesses. It is not luck that results in superior distinctions such as these, but rather hard work and dedication to our patients. At Community Medical Center, we take seriously our roles and responsibilities in providing the very best care, and it is through experience and our commitment to excellence that we are able to solidify our presence as one of the highest quality providers in our region.”
The HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Patient Safety™ outcomes and the entire Patient Safety methodology are published free of charge on the HealthGrades web site, www.healthgrades.com.
For more information about Community Medical Center, log onto www.saintbarnabas.com or call 1-888-SBHS-123.
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