St. Vincent Charity Hospital Receives National Quality Award for Superior Outcomes

Cleveland — November 2007 — St. Vincent Charity Hospital recently received the Select Practice National Quality Award. The award, issued by Premier Healthcare Alliance, recognizes the top 1 percent of more than 4,700 acute-care inpatient facilities in the United States for superior outcomes. A growing number of healthcare consumers are joining physicians in using clinical outcome data to distinguish one hospital from another.

“We are extremely pleased to be recognized among this elite hospital group for quality patient care and superior outcomes,” said St. Vincent Charity Hospital President & CEO Jeffrey S. Jeney. “This achievement is highly reflective of the quality, mission-driven care of our dedicated team of physicians, nurses and clinical support staff.”

Select Practice National Quality Award recipients did not apply for the award; rather, the 49 facilities were selected based on reported data in areas such as mortality, morbidity and length of stay.

“This distinction honors an entire clinical team of physicians and medical professionals who will not rest when it comes to improving the quality of patient care,” said Adnan Tahir, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, St. Vincent Charity Hospital. “Our Caregivers go beyond medical care to deliver human care. I want to thank and congratulate them for their contributions.”

To identify top performers, Premier evaluated quality and efficiency data reported by all acute care facilities in the MEDPAR 2005 database, regardless of bed size or teaching status.

Select Practice data includes 16 different, clinically relevant indicators of risk, more than any other national quality award or designation. The quality index is calculated by combining the outcome deviations for mortality, morbidity and complications into a single quality measure for each facility. The combined quality and efficiency ratings are used to determine the award recipients.

Premier Healthcare Alliance, the largest healthcare alliance in the United States, is dedicated to improving patient outcomes, while safely reducing the cost of care through network purchasing.

Additional Quality Awards and Recognitions

St. Vincent Charity Hospital also recently received the following awards from Healthgrades, an independent healthcare ratings company:

• Orthopedic Surgery Clinical Excellence Award (2008) for superior outcomes in Orthopedic Surgery.
• Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence (2006 and 2007), recognizing clinical excellence based on mortality and complication rates as reported in the Medpar database.
• Pulmonary Care Excellence Award (2006 and 2008) acknowledging a low inpatient, 1- month and 6- month post-discharge mortality rate for COPD and Pneumonia care over a three-year period (2003-2005).
• Spine Surgery Excellence Award (2008), recognizing low complication rates in Back and Neck Surgery over a three-year period (2003-2005).
• Stroke Care Excellence Award (2008), recognizing excellence in Stroke Care based on inpatient, 1-month and 6-month post-discharge stroke mortality data over a three year period (2003-2005).

About St. Vincent Charity Hospital

St. Vincent Charity Hospital is a 480-bed, full-service inpatient and outpatient healthcare center dedicated to its mission of providing quality, Catholic healthcare. The Hospital has served the Greater Cleveland community for more than 142 years. St. Vincent Charity Hospital is jointly owned by the Sisters of Charity Health System and University Hospitals. For more information, visit www.stvincentcharity.com.