St. Mary’s Medical Center announced today that it is a recipient of the Healthgrades 2019 Patient Safety Excellence AwardTM. This distinction places St. Mary’s Medical Center among the top 5% of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for information about physicians and hospitals.
St. Mary’s Medical center is one of only 15 hospitals in Missouri to receive this distinction. The hospital was also recently awarded an ‘A’ Patient Safety Grade from the LeapFrog Group for the fourth time in a row.
Additionally, St. Mary’s Medical Center is a member of Prime Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest hospital systems with 45 hospitals in 14 states. The system, as a whole, has received more Patient Safety Excellence Awards than any other in the country for the last four years.
“We are proud to recognize the recipients of the 2019 Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award, which shines a spotlight on the hospitals that are preventing the occurrence of serious, potentially avoidable complications, for patients during their hospital stay,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “We applaud these hospitals and their commitment to providing the best possible care for every patient.”
During the study period (2015 to 2017), Healthgrades 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospitals demonstrated excellent performance in safety provided for patients in the Medicare population, as measured by objective outcomes (risk-adjusted patient safety indicator rates) for 14 patient safety indicators defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
“To say I’m extraordinarily proud of the staff at St. Mary’s is an understatement, “said Drew Grossman, Chief Executive Officer of St. Mary’s Medical Center. “The hard work and attention to detail they put in to maintain these high standards is remarkable. This recognition is a testament to the deeply-rooted culture of patient safety we practice every day.”
Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award were, as compared to patients at non-recipient hospitals, on average*:
- 55.9% less likely to experience an accidental cut, puncture, perforation or hemorrhage during medical care.
- 50.9% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest.
- 64.4% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital.
- 57% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital.
In addition, if all hospitals in the country performed at the level of award recipients for each of the 14 Patient Safety Indicators, 127,667 patient safety events could have been avoided.*
St. Mary’s Medical Center has implemented a number of programs that have made it a Patient Safety Excellence Award receipted. One in particular is its “Great Catch” program, which rewards staff for reporting ‘near misses’ that are corrected before a harmful situation occurs. When a ‘near miss’ is reported, it’s reviewed by a committee that then find solutions to reduce the risk of such event in the future.
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*Statistics are calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology which is based primarily on AHRQ technical specifications (Version 5e and 2018) to MedPAR data for years 2015 through 2017 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.