FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saints Medical Center recognized by the Premier healthcare alliance for high-quality patient care, operational efficiency
Lowell, Mass. June 23, 2010. - -Saints Medical Center today announced it has been recognized by the Premier healthcare alliance as a winner of the Premier Award for Quality (AFQ). Saints is one of 21 hospital winners and three healthcare systems nationwide.
There were 3,788 hospitals and 346 healthcare systems that were eligible to receive the AFQ. The award recognizes leading healthcare organizations that efficiently provide outstanding patient care and consistently set the standard in clinical excellence.
The AFQ’s performance-based criteria including clinical quality outcomes, resource utilization, and clinical process indicators measures top performers at the overall hospital level. “Saints prides itself on the quality of care we provide our patients. as a result of Our ongoing efforts continue to focus on quality, safety and improving our care delivery systems, as well as our emphasis on patient-centered care,”said Helene Thibodeau, VP of Quality and Patient Care, “This award recognizes the exemplary care that our staff and phsycians deliver to each and every patient we touch.”
Saints accepted the award at the 2010 Premier Annual Breakthroughs Conference & Exhibition, which was held June 8-11 in Washington.
“The AFQ honors the efforts of industry leaders to provide high-quality care,” said Susan DeVore, Premier President and CEO. “As we celebrate the achievements of these facilities, the alliance is helping to further improve the health of communities across the nation.”
All acute care inpatient facilities in the United States that submitted data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the CMS Hospital Compare project were considered for the AFQ. Using MedPar 2008 data, Quality and Efficiency Indexes were calculated for 60 disease groups and at the overall hospital level. Quality was measured by the incidence of three adverse outcomes: mortality, morbidity and complications, which are combined into a single Quality Index using the preference weightings from the Corporate Hospital Rating Project (CHRP). The efficiency index was generated using length of stay to proxy for resource utilization.
Acute care facilities attaining the top 1 percent designation are identified as having scores in the top two quintiles for process of care, and in 10 out of 60 disease groups and at the overall hospital level for quality and efficiency. Hospitals had measures for quality and efficiency that were equal to or exceeded expected outcomes. In addition, new for 2010, Premier measured aggregation to the system level, with the same methodology, for healthcare system awards.
Additional information about the AFQ and related methodology can be found at: http://www.premierinc.com/about/news/awards/index.jsp.
About the Premier healthcare alliance, 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,300 U.S. hospitals and 67,000-plus other healthcare sites working together to achieve high quality, cost-effective care. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier maintains the nation's most comprehensive repository of clinical, financial and outcomes information and operates a leading healthcare purchasing network. A world leader in helping deliver measurable improvements in care, Premier works with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Premier also has offices in San Diego, Philadelphia and Washington. www.premierinc.com
