Tucson News NowTop honors for Tucson hospital

TUCSON, AZ (KOLD-TV) - A huge honor for a local hospital ranks Tucson in the top 50 cities in the country for hospital quality.

The numbers get better. HealthGrades, a leading independent healthcare ratings organization has named Carondelet St. Mary's Hospital as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence™.

This prestigious distinction places St. Mary's among the top 5% of hospitals nationwide for clinical performance. This basically means, people are more likely to have successful treatment, fewer complications and lower mortality, at a hospital with this rating.

Out of 5,000 hospitals studied nationwide, only 263 were designated as a HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence™.

"Carondelet St. Mary's can be proud of the contributions of its physicians, nurses and staff in achieving outstanding patient care," says Dr. Rick May, HealthGrades' vice president of clinical quality services and co-author of the study. "The Tucson community is fortunate to have access to some of the highest quality hospital care in the nation.

"We are extremely proud of this designation by HealthGrades. It is wonderful for our physicians and associates to know that St. Mary's is recognized among the best in the nation for providing quality care to the patients that we serve," notes Dorothy Sawyer, Carondelet Senior Vice President and CEO of St. Mary's Hospital.

Beyond earning the top award as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence, St. Mary's received 5 Star ratings (the highest possible) for its care of heart attacks, heart failure, stroke, pneumonia, sepsis and respiratory failure.

The hospital also achieved HealthGrades' Critical Care Excellence Award, placing it among the top 10 percent of hospitals nationwide for critical care.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Amy Beiter adds, "We have a long list of physicians who have dedicated their careers to serving patients and families at St. Mary's and we are all honored to be recognized by HealthGrades and to know that our hospital is responsible for helping to elevate Tucson's reputation for quality clinical care."

Unlike other hospital quality studies, HealthGrades evaluates hospitals solely on clinical outcomes, risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complications. HealthGrades' analysis is based on approximately 40 million Medicare discharges for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.

Using these top performing hospitals as a benchmark in this year's HealthGrades study, HealthGrades quantifies the impact of differences in hospital quality in terms of lives lost and unexpected complications.

This Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence award is not the only prestigious recognition St. Mary's has earned recently. St. Mary's was the only Arizona hospital honored by The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association with a Get with the Guidelines Gold Award for care of heart failure. The hospital also received a GWTG Silver-Plus Award for its care of stroke.

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