YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Northside Medical Center has received the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence from Healthgrades, a national provider of information about physicians and hospitals. The award puts Northside among the top 5% of more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide for its clinical performance, says Kirk Ray, CEO of ValleyCare Health System of Ohio and Northside Medical Center.
"Every day at Northside Medical Center we strive to provide the highest level of quality and safety to our patients for the best outcomes possible,” said Ray. “Receiving the Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence Award along with 28 other HealthGrades awards means we’re achieving what we’ve set out to do. This honor is a recognition of the great work being done by our physicians, nurses and staff.”
Denver-based Healthgrades evaluates over 4,500 hospitals across the nation in 28 procedures and conditions annually. No hospital can opt-in or opt-out of being evaluated, and no hospital pays to be evaluated. Mortality and complication rates are risk adjusted, which takes into account differing levels of severity of patient illness at different hospitals and allows for hospitals to be compared equally, according to the company.
From 2009 through 2011, Healthgrades reports, 262 hospitals showed superior performance in caring for patients in the Medicare population, as measured by objective clinical outcomes across at least 19 of 27 of the most common conditions and procedures. Nationally, if all hospitals performed at this level, a total of 164,414 lives could have potentially been saved.
“Healthgrades helps consumers become more aware that hospital quality matters and differs significantly from one hospital to another, even in their own neighborhood,” said Evan Marks, spokesman for Healthgrades.
Northside Medical Center has pledged to enhance the level of service provided to the community, Ray noted. Over the past two years Northside has become a Level III Trauma Center and Certified Chest Pain Center while also maintaining its accreditation as a Primary Stroke Center. For STEMI patients, Northside set out to beat the standard of a 90-minute or less door-to-balloon time, and the physicians, nurses and staff have exceeded that goal with average of 68 minutes in 2012, the hospital’s CEO reported.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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