News| Saint Joseph’s Hospital Named Again Among Nation’s Best | | | | Published Monday, Oct. 16, 2006 |
Atlanta, GA - Saint Joseph’s Hospital has been ranked among the top ten percent in the nation for overall cardiology, orthopedic care, joint replacement surgery and gastrointestinal care according to a comprehensive study released by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading healthcare ratings company.
For cardiology, Saint Joseph’s was rated five-star and “Best in Georgia” for the fifth consecutive year as well as being ranked among the top 10 percent of hospitals in the nation. Orthopaedics at Saint Joseph’s earned the Orthopaedic Care Excellence Award, the Joint Replacement Excellence Award and ranked “Best in Georgia” for both. Gastrointestinal services also earned the Care Excellence Award and a ranking of “Best in Georgia.”
“These recognitions reflect the commitment of our physicians, nurses and therapists to provide the highest quality care to our patients,” says Kirk Wilson, president and CEO of Saint Joseph’s Health System.
As part of its ninth annual Hospital Quality in America Study, HealthGrades independently analyzed more than 5,000 hospitals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for its 2007 ratings, objectively assessing their clinical outcomes and quality. The 40 million hospitalization records utilized in the assessment are publicly available and licensed from the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The HealthGrades ratings take into account varying degrees of patient severity from hospital to hospital and measure whether patient outcomes for each of more than two dozen procedures and diagnoses are better than expected (5-Star), as expected (3-Star) or worse than expected (1-Star).
“Consumers continue to ask for more and better information to help them in their health care decision making,” said Samantha Collier, M.D., HealthGrades’ vice president of medical affairs. “Our analysis provides an apples-to-apples comparison of hospital performance by procedure or diagnosis, and it is evident there is significant variance between individual hospitals. For Saint Joseph’s to rank among the nation’s best reflects the efforts of everybody in the organization, and should be very comforting to area residents.”
The 2007 HealthGrades ratings for all hospitals nationwide are available, free of charge, on HealthGrades’ consumer Web site, located at www.healthgrades.com. More than three million individuals and employees of more than 125 major employers visit the HealthGrades web site every month to access quality information about hospitals, nursing homes and physicians. HealthGrades also provides consumers and payers with detailed assessments of hospitals’ patient-safety outcomes, based on indicators developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
|
|
