Metro East Sun

Belleville Memorial Hospital issued the following announcement on May 8.

Memorial Hospital Belleville received the Healthgrades 2018 Patient Safety Excellence Award™ top 5% in the nation for the third consecutive year, a designation that recognizes superior performance of hospitals that have prevented the occurrence of serious, potentially avoidable complications for patients during hospital stays.

The distinction places Memorial Hospital Belleville among the top 5 percent of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data for its excellent performance as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.  In addition, Memorial Hospital Belleville is on the only hospital in the St. Louis metro area to be in the top 5% for three years in a row.

“We are very pleased to again receive this award,” said Mark J. Turner, president of Memorial Regional Health Services.  “Recognition from HealthGrades is a true testament to the professionalism and dedication of our staff.  We know consumers have a choice of where to go for their healthcare services.  We also know that healthcare consumers are aware of resources, like HealthGrades, available to help them make those decisions.”

During the 2014 to 2016 study period, Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award were, on average:

• 55.6 percent less likely to experience an accidental cut, puncture, perforation or hemorrhage during medical care, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals
• 52.4 percent less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals
• 62.8 percent less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals
• 54.3 percent less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals1

During the study period (2014 to 2016), Healthgrades 2018 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 13 patient safety indicators defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). 

If all hospitals achieved the average performance of award recipients for each of the 13 Patient Safety Indicators evaluated, during the 2014 to 2016 study period, 126,342 patient safety events could have been avoided.

Original source can be found here.

Source: Belleville Memorial Hospital