Jacqueline A. Galante, director of Performance Improvement, Chief Nursing Officer Nancy Bisco-Flora and Ellie Lezynski-Anderson, manager of Risk Management, holding the Healthgrades 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award.
Saint Michael’s Medical Center announced today that it has received the 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award from Healthgrades, the leading online resource for information about physicians and hospitals.
The distinction places the hospital in the top 10 percent of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades. The award recognizes excellence in clinical care that leads to fewer complications and better patient outcomes.
Saint Michael’s is the only hospital in Newark to receive the Healthgrades recognition and one of only three in Essex County.
“The Healthgrades award is another indication of just how hard we have worked to create a culture of patient safety in the hospital,” said CEO Robert Iannaccone. “Patients can come to our hospital assured that they will receive the highest quality and safest care available in this region.”
Saint Michael’s was purchased out of bankruptcy in May 2016 by Prime Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest hospital systems with 45 hospitals in 14 states. Since then, the hospital has turned the corner financially and significantly improved other measures of patient safety and quality, earning numerous accolades. In the fall, the hospital was awarded an A in patient safety from the Leapfrog Group and was named by Healthgrades as a top 100 hospital in America for Cardiac Care.
Leapfrog Group is set to release its Spring 2019 grades tomorrow.
Healthgrades has awarded 34 of Prime Healthcare’s 45 hospitals a 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award, including Saint Clare’s in Denville. Prime has more Patient Safety Excellence Award recipients for four consecutive years (2016-2019) than any other health system in the country.
“We are proud to recognize the recipients of the 2019 Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award, which shines a spotlight on the hospitals that are preventing the occurrence of serious, potentially avoidable complications, for patients during their hospital stay,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “We applaud these hospitals and their commitment to providing the best possible care for every patient.”
During the study period (2015 to 2017), Healthgrades 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospitals demonstrated excellent performance in safety provided for patients in the Medicare population, as measured by objective outcomes (risk-adjusted patient safety indicator rates) for 14 patient safety indicators defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award were, as compared to patients at non-recipients hospitals, on average*:
- 55.9% less likely to experience an accidental cut, puncture, perforation or hemorrhage during medical care.
- 50.9% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest.
- 64.4% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital.
- 57% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital.
In addition, if all hospitals in the country performed at the level of award recipients for each of the 14 Patient Safety Indicators, 127,667 patient safety events could have been avoided.
View Healthgrades hospital quality methodologies.