David Fox, BRMC VP/Chief Operating Officer; Ron Peterson, BRMC President & CEO; Garrett Spry, District Director of Quality Solutions, Healthgrades; Shannon Nachtigal VP/Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer with the Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award; Dr. Louis Elkins, cardiovascular surgeon, with the Healthgrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery in 2018 recognition; and Barney Larry, BRMC VP/Business Development and Baxter Regional Hospital Foundation Executive Director.
Friday was a double banner day for Baxter Regional Medical Center and the patients served in the hospital’s 14-county service area.
Healthgrades, a national physician, hospital and healthcare provider rating company based in Denver, announced BRMC has been recognized as the only medical center in Arkansas to be named among its rankings of American’s 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery in 2018. This is the fourth consecutive year for BRMC to be named one of Healthgrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery, and it is the only hospital in Arkansas to achieve this distinction.
In addition, the national company announced BRMC is the only hospital in Arkansas to achieve its Patient Safety Excellence Award in 2017.
The awards are based on actual patient outcomes at the local hospital.
Healthgrades is touted as the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. The company evaluates performance annually at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 34 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions.
Garrett Spry, Director of Quality Solutions for Healthgrades, traveled from Denver to make the announcements he described as rare, particularly in a community hospital setting.
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Spry says the span of time BRMC’s American’s 50 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Care awards stretches is a significant distinction.
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In accepting the two awards, BRMC President and CEO Ron Peterson says its affirmation of the reductions in mortality and complications being achieved.
Peterson recognized the physicians in attendance, Dr. Louis Elkins, cardiovascular surgeon, and Dr. Patrick Tobbia, cardiologist, as well as BRMC Heart Team staff members, before the unveiling of two large banners dropped from the roof and spanning two wings of the medical center announcing the awards.
The Healthgrades 2017 Patient Safety Excellence Award recognizes superior performance in hospitals preventing the occurrence of serious, potentially avoidable complications for patients during their stays.
The distinction places BRMC among the top 5 percent of hospitals reporting patient safety data in the nation for its excellent performance as evaluated by Healthgrades. During the 2013-2015 study period, Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award were on average 40 percent less likely to experience an accidental puncture or laceration during a procedure than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
In addition, these patients were 44.6 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. Further, these patients were 54.4 percent less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
On average 134,568 patient safety events could have been avoided if all hospitals, as a group from 2013 to 2015, performed similarly to hospitals performing better than expected on each of 13 patient safety indicators evaluated by Healthgrades.
These achievements are part of findings released by Healthgrades and are featured in the company’s 2018 Report to the Nation. The report demonstrates how clinical performance continues to differ dramatically between hospitals nationally, regionally and at the local level, and the impact this variation may have on health outcomes.
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