the 2012 HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award™, indicating that its
patient safety ratings are in the top 5% of U.S. hospitals.
The study finds that Medicare patients at Patient Safety Excellence Award
hospitals were almost 48% less likely to experience one of 13 preventable
safety events compared to hospitals in the bottom 5% in the nation. If all
hospitals performed at Riverview Hospital’s level of distinction, approximately
254,000 patient safety events and 56,367 deaths among Medicare patients could
have been avoided.
To identify the 2012 HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award recipients,
HealthGrades analyzed approximately 40 million hospitalization records from
5,000 hospitals nationwide that participate in the Medicare program.
Participation in the HealthGrades study is not voluntary, and hospitals cannot
choose to opt out of the analysis.
“Receiving this recognition is a reflection of our vision to redefine the
healthcare experience, by becoming the best place to practice medicine, and
receive care,” said Pat Fox, President of Riverview Hospital. “We have achieved
this recognition by being proactive and maintaining protocols that focus on
delivering world class care that is focused on patient safety.”
“From improving communication to implementing protocols to make surgery safer,
hospitals across the country are working harder to reduce preventable patient
safety events. The results of these efforts are clear among this year’s
HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award hospitals. Patients of hospitals
performing in the top 5% of the nation’s hospitals were almost 48% less likely
to experience a patient safety event compared to hospitals ranked in the bottom
5%,” said Kristin Reed, MPH, vice president of hospital quality programs at
HealthGrades and author of the study. “Hospitals like Riverview Hospital are
not only setting the bar for high standards of patient safety but also serving
as an example for other hospitals.”
HealthGrades uses Medicare inpatient data from the Medicare Provider Analysis
and Review (MedPAR) database and Patient Safety Indicator software from the
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to calculate event rates for
13 indicators of patient safety for all of the nation’s hospitals. All analysis
was based on data from 2008 to 2010. These indicators identify the
best-performing hospitals, which represent the top 5% of all U.S. hospitals and
are this year’s HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award recipients.
HealthGrades developed this award to give patients more information about
choosing a hospital.
HealthGrades analyzes the following patient safety events for this study:
· Death
in procedures where mortality is usually very low
· Pressure
or bed sores acquired in hospital
· Death
following a serious complication after surgery
· Foreign
object left in body during a procedure
· Collapsed
lung due to procedure or surgery in or around chest
· Catheter-related
bloodstream infections acquired at hospital
· Hip
fracture following surgery
· Hemorrhage
or hematoma resulting from procedure or surgery
· Electrolyte
and fluid imbalance following surgery
· Respiratory
failure following surgery
· Deep
blood clots in lungs or legs following surgery
· Sepsis
following surgery
· Breakdown
of abdominal incision site
More information on HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award and the
ratings methodology is available at HealthGrades.com <http://www.healthgrades.com> .
