St. Vincent Charity Medical Center Ranked Top Five Percent in Nation According to Quality Study

1/26/2010

CLEVELAND, OH (January 26, 2010) – St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, a ministry of the Sisters of Charity Health System, announced today that a new study ranks its clinical quality among the top 5% in the nation. The study by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization, analyzed patient outcomes at each of the nation’s 5,000 nonfederal hospitals over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 and named hospitals in the top 5% as HealthGrades Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence™.  

This is the fifth consecutive year that St. Vincent Charity Medical Center has been awarded the Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence™.  St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is one of only 269 hospitals nationally and one of only 12 hospitals in Ohio to receive this distinction from HealthGrades.   

“This award is a credit to our entire care-giving team—physicians, nurses, aides and technicians,” said Sister Judith Ann Karam, CSA, president and CEO of St. Vincent Charity Medical Center and the Sisters of Charity Health System. “We have spent the past decade driving a patient-centered model of care across all areas of our hospital. The Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence is a testament to our mission of providing the best possible care in a compassionate environment. I couldn’t be prouder of our team,” she said.

“Our goal at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is to consistently deliver high-quality care,” said Adnan Tahir, MD, Chief Medical Officer. “We value our patients and it is our responsibility and obligation to ensure that they receive the best care available. Over the years, and through the implementation of a patient-centered model of care that is built on teamwork and collaboration, we were able to consistently deliver high-quality care that is safe, effective and efficient,” said Tahir.

According to the eighth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center and the other hospitals in the top 5% demonstrated patient outcomes that far exceeded those of other hospitals. Patients admitted to these hospitals had risk-adjusted mortality rates that were, on average, 29% lower than all other hospitals. Risk-adjusted complication rates were, on average, 9% lower than all other hospitals.

“Our data show that only a select few hospitals achieve high-quality patient outcomes not just in a few categories of care, but across the board and over time,” said Rick May, MD, a vice president with HealthGrades and an author of the study. “Patients in communities with a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence should feel proud of the hospital’s accomplishments, and confident that the level of care there is among the very best in the nation.”

The study states: “Patients who choose to receive their care at a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence certainly will have a lower risk for an adverse clinical outcome relative to all other hospitals.”

As a group, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center and those identified as being in the top 5% in the nation improved their mortality rates at a faster pace than all other hospitals. Over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008, the HealthGrades study found that Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence lowered their risk-adjusted mortality rates over the three years by an average of 14%, compared with a 10% average improvement of all other hospitals.  

In addition to St. Vincent Charity Medical Center’s ranking in the top 5% nationally for overall clinical excellence for six years in a row, the hospital has also received HealthGrades Excellence Awards for its Pulmonary Care and is ranked within the top 5 hospitals in Ohio for Spine surgery.

Methodology
This is the eighth year that HealthGrades has independently analyzed the clinical quality performance of all non-federal hospitals across the country in 26 procedures and diagnoses, including spine, stroke, pulmonary, cardiac services and back and neck surgery. In the study, the company reviewed approximately 40 million hospitalization records from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.  All hospitals that participate in the Medicare program were part of the independent study. Hospitals that receive the HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence are those hospitals that rank in the top 5% when all 26 individual scores are aggregated into an overall score.

About St. Vincent Charity Medical Center
St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is Cleveland’s faith-based, high-quality healthcare provider. Our distinguished doctors and caregivers are devoted to treating every patient with clinical excellence and compassionate care. St. Vincent Charity Medical Center is home to the renowned Spine and Orthopedic Institute and the Center for Bariatric Surgery. Owned by the Sisters of Charity Health System, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center delivers health care you can believe in. The Sisters of Charity Health System is a family of healthcare, foundation, outreach and eldercare ministries devoted to healing individuals, families and communities. For more information, visit www.stvincentcharity.com.

###

Editor’s note: A full copy of the study is available at http://www.healthgrades.com or by contacting Scott Shapiro at sshapiro@healthgrades.com.

Blog

St. Vincent Charity Celebrates Patient Advocacy with Inaugural Kathleen Redmond Award

Last week, we concluded our National Nurses’ Week celebration by announcing the recipient of the inaugural Kathleen Redmond Educational Award. Kathleen Redmond was a nurse on 2A who died unexpectedly at the age of 27 in May 2012. Her family...[More]

St. Vincent Charity helps to raise awareness of heroin epidemic

Back in February, St. Vincent Charity Medical Center began working with WKYC’s Senior Health Correspondent, Monica Robins, on an important documentary about the heroin epidemic in Northeast Ohio. On average, four people are killed from heroin every...[More]

Health Literacy Institute at SVCMC invited to the Institute of Medicine

Karen Komondor, director of the Health Literacy Institute at St. Vincent Charity Medical Center, was invited to present at the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable Workshop on Health Literacy in Washington D.C. on April 11, 2013. Karen was one of 10...[More]