HealthGrades bestows Sarasota Memorial top three national awards for 2011

SARASOTA—HealthGrades recently gave Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) the highest possible rating – 5 stars – in 23 specialty areas, only months after the nation’s leading source of hospital quality ratings honored SMH for overall quality. The newest honor leaves SMH with its top three national awards for 2011: America’s 50 Best Hospitals (top 1 percent for quality & safety), Patient Safety Excellence Award (top 5 percent for patient safety) and Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence (top 5 percent for clinical excellence).
“The fact that we earned 5-star ratings in so many areas demonstrates that our high performance isn’t limited to one specific specialty or service,” said SMH spokesperson Kim Savage.

The new 5-star HealthGrades 2011 Healthcare Consumerism and Hospital Quality in America study released earlier this fall analyzed the mortality and complication rates for a variety of procedures and diagnoses at 5,000 U.S. hospitals, with a 5-star rating indicating the hospital has outperformed the national average to a statistically significant degree.

Other key findings of the report show that patients had on average a 73 percent lower risk of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to a 1-star rated hospital, and a 54 percent lower risk of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to the national average. Also, on average, patients were 63 percent less likely to experience in-hospital complications than patients at 1-star programs, and had a 43 percent lower chance of developing an in-hospital complication than the national average.

“We’re very proud to be awarded five stars in so many specialties,” said Sarasota Memorial CEO Gwen MacKenzie. “It’s a testament to the commitment and caliber of our physicians and healthcare team who are working hard to save lives every day. The recognition is heartening, but at the end of the day, what makes us most proud is how our patients feel, and we want them to feel better just knowing we’re here.”
“Patients today have a wide array options when it comes to choosing a healthcare provider,” said HealthGrades CEO Kerry Hicks.

“At HealthGrades, we’re proud to have led the way for empowering patient choice based on objective clinical outcomes and access to actionable quality measures. We commend Sarasota Memorial for its superior quality and support of consumerism and transparency in the Tampa Bay-St. Petersburg area.”

The 5-star ratings applied to these specialty areas:

• Emergency medicine for two consecutive years.
• Treatment of heart attack for 10 years in a row.
• Treatment of heart failure, also for 10 years in a row.
• Overall orthopedic services.
• Spine surgery for seven consecutive years.
• Hip fracture treatment.
• Back and neck surgery (except spinal fusion).
• Back and neck surgery (spinal fusion) for eight consecutive years.
• Neurosciences.
• Treatment of stroke for a decade.
• Overall pulmonary services for four consecutive years.
• Treatment of pneumonia for 10 years in a row.
• Peripheral vascular bypass.
• General surgery.
• GI procedures and surgeries for three consecutive years.
• Treatment of GI bleed for nine years in a row.
• Cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal).
• Overall Critical Care for three consecutive years.
• Treatment of sepsis for nine years in a row.
• Treatment of pulmonary embolism for three consecutive years.
• Treatment of respiratory failure for three years in a row.
• Maternity care for nine consecutive years.
• Women's health for nine years in a row.

HealthGrades also reported that if all Medicare patients from 2008 to 2010 had been treated at 5-star hospitals, 240,040 lives could have potentially been saved. During the same time period, if all Medicare patients had gone to 5-star hospitals for their procedure, 164,472 in-hospital complications could have potentially been avoided.

When looking at quality outcomes, SMH routinely ranks high on national lists like HealthGrades, which attracts more than 170 million unique visitors annually on its website. It was also the only Tampa Bay area hospital to perform “well above average” on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid annual report on hospital mortality and readmissions.

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