NEWS RELEASES:

Saint John’s Earns Outstanding Patient Experience Award for Second Consecutive Year

Saint John’s Health System announced June 9, 2010, that it has been recognized with the 2010/2011 Outstanding Patient Experience Award™ from HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. This marks the second consecutive year that Saint John’s has received HealthGrade’s Outstanding Patient Experience Award.

Saint John’s Health System scored among the top ten percent of hospitals in the nation for patient satisfaction, as measured by survey results of patients gathered under an initiative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services covering the year ending June 2009. The results were analyzed by HealthGrades.

The national, standardized survey, called the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems or HCAHPS, assesses patients’ perspectives of the hospital care they received, including physician and nurse communication, cleanliness, noise levels, medication information and post-discharge care instructions.

HealthGrades analyzed survey results for the 3,775 hospitals nationwide that participated in the HCAHPS program during the study time period to determine which hospitals scored highest on the surveys. Hospitals had to meet bed size, survey response size, and clinical-quality thresholds in order to be eligible for the award. The methodology is available at www.HealthGrades.com <http://www.healthgrades.com/> .

“Saint John’s Health System is patient- and caregiver-focused, with patient safety, clinical excellence and the provision of an exceptional experience from start to finish for each and every patient and family as our highest priorities,” said Saint John’s President, Tom VanOsdol.

In the past year, Saint John’s received the top customer service award in the Herald Bulletin’s Best of Madison County promotion. Also, Saint John’s was ranked third in the large company category in the Indianapolis Star’s 2010 Top Workplaces initiative, and Tom VanOsdol, president, received the Leadership Award.
 

Saint John's Recognized for Joint Replacement 

Saint John’s Health System announced that it is ranked among the top five percent of hospitals in the nation for joint replacement surgery (such as total knee and total hip replacement) according to the study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent health care ratings organization.  Saint John’s was ranked among the top three hospitals in Indiana for joint replacement and was the highest ranked hospital in the Anderson, Lafayette, and Muncie Area for joint replacement.

Saint John’s also has been recognized with a 2010 Joint Replacement Excellence Award™ from HealthGrades for superior patient outcomes for joint replacement surgeries.  The study further recognized Saint John’s Health System with a five-star rating for joint replacement surgery.  The recognition is based on a national study of patient outcomes in the nation’s 5,000 hospitals, which found that hospitals receiving a five-star rating, had, on average, an 80% lower rate of complications than hospitals rated by HealthGrades as 1-star.

In total, Saint John’s received:

Ø      Ranked Among the Top 5% of Hospitals in the Nation for Joint Replacement Surgery

Ø      One of Only 5 Indiana Hospitals Ranked Among the Top 5% Nationally for Joint Replacement Surgery

Ø      Ranked Among the Top 3 Hospitals in Indiana for Joint Replacement Surgery

Ø      Best Rated in the Anderson, Lafayette, and Muncie Area for Joint Replacement Surgery

Ø      Recipient of the HealthGrades 2010 Joint Replacement Excellence Award™

Ø      Five-Star Rated for Joint Replacement Surgery

Ø      Five-Star Rated for Total Knee Replacement Surgery

Ø      Five-Star Rated for Total Hip Replacement Surgery

Saint John’s provides a full spectrum of services for patients seeking hip or knee replacement.  Patients scheduled for knee or hip replacement surgery are offered the opportunity to attend comprehensive education sessions that explain the surgery and important information regarding recovery.  They report to The Joint Replacement Center for pre-operative care.  Surgery is performed in the Saint John’s Surgery Services; then, patients return to the joint replacement center for recovery.  

“Saint John’s joint replacement program is patient- and caregiver-focused, with patient safety, clinical excellence and the provision of an exceptional experience from start to finish for each and every patient and family as our highest priorities,” said Saint John’s President, Tom VanOsdol.

A wide variation in quality exists among American hospitals, according to the twelfth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America study. Patients were 80 percent less likely to experience a major complication in 5-star rated hospitals when compared with 1-star rated hospitals across a range of procedures studied such as knee replacement and hip replacement surgeries. Top-performing hospitals also dramatically outperformed the national average, with patients experiencing, on average, 61 percent fewer in-hospital complications among the procedures studied.

The study also found that if all hospitals performed at the level of a five-star rated hospital, 110,687 orthopedic in-hospital complications may have been avoided among Medicare patients over the three years studied.

HealthGrades Ratings

The HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America study, the largest annual report of its kind, analyzed patient outcomes in nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records from 5,000 hospitals over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.

HealthGrades’ hospital ratings and awards reflect the track record of patient outcomes at hospitals in the form of mortality and complication rates. HealthGrades rates hospitals independently based on data that hospitals submit to the federal government. No hospital can opt in or out of being rated, and no hospital pays to be rated.

HealthGrades issues star ratings that reflect the mortality and complication rates for each category of care. Hospitals receiving a 5-star rating have mortality or complication rates that are below the national average, to a statistically significant degree. A 3-star rating means the hospital performs as expected. One-star ratings indicate the hospital’s mortality or complication rates in that procedure or treatment are statistically higher than average. Because the risk profiles of patient populations at hospitals are not alike, HealthGrades risk-adjusts the data to allow for apples-to-apples comparisons.

The St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana and St.Vincent Indianapolis Hospital are ranked the top two hospitals in Indiana and among the top 5 percent nationally for cardiac care, according to the HealthGrades study.  This marks the fifth consecutive year the St.Vincent Heart Center of Indiana has been ranked the best in the state.  According to the HealthGrades study, the St.Vincent Heart Center is only one of six hospitals in the country to achieve the highest honors in overall cardiac care, cardiac surgery, cardiology and coronary interventions.  St.Vincent Indianapolis Hospital ranks second in the state for overall heart care, cardiology and coronary interventions.  The hospital also ranked number one in Indiana and among the top 5 percent nationally for gastrointestinal care.