(Mt. Vernon, Ill.) Good Samaritan Regional Health Center was recently named one of the nation’s Top Performers on Key Quality Measures by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in America.
The Mt. Vernon hospital was recognized by The Joint Commission for exemplary performance in using evidence-based clinical processes that are shown to improve care for certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. Hospitals ranking in the top 18 percent of the stringent judging by The Joint Commission were named as Top Performers on Key Quality Measures. Good Samaritan Regional Health Center was among only 17 hospitals in Illinois to make the list of 620 facilities nationwide. St. Mary’s Hospital in Centralia also achieved Top Performers status for improved care in heart attack, pneumonia and surgical care.
“Being named to this list of hospitals places our hospital in elite company,” said Good Samaritan Regional Health Center president Mike Warren. “It is verification that we are making significant strides in our constant effort to improve our quality of care. As a Top Performer, our hospital staff, physicians, and volunteers have worked hard to achieve this level of recognition.”
Each of the hospitals that were named as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures met two 95 percent (95/95) performance thresholds on 2011 accountability measure data. First, each hospital achieved performance of 95 percent or above on a single, composite score that includes all the accountability measures for which it reports data to The Joint Commission, including measures that had fewer than 30 eligible cases or patients. Second, each hospital met or exceeded 95 percent performance on every accountability measure for which it reports data to The Joint Commission, excluding any measures with fewer than 30 eligible cases or patients. A 95 percent score means a hospital provided an evidence-based practice 95 times out of 100 opportunities to provide the practice. Each accountability measure represents an evidence-based practice – for example, giving aspirin at arrival for heart attack patients, giving antibiotics one hour before surgery, and providing a home management plan for children with asthma.
“When we raise the bar and provide the proper guidance and tools, hospitals have responded with excellent results,” says Mark R. Chassin, M.D., FACP, M.P.P., M.P.H., president of The Joint Commission. “This capacity for continual improvement points toward a future in which quality and safety defects are dramatically reduced and high reliability is sought and achieved with regularity. Such day-to-day progress will slowly but surely transform today’s health care system into one that achieves unprecedented performance outcomes for the benefit of the patients.”
“To receive such recognition from The Joint Commission is no small accomplishment,” said St. Mary’s Good Samaritan CEO Phil Gustafson. “This recognition is based on performance and to be honored for our care at Good Samaritan Regional Health Center is great news for not only our staff, but patients as well.”
As a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures, Good Samaritan Regional Health Center will be recognized on The Joint Commission’s Quality Check Web site: www.qualitycheck.org.