Premier/CareScience award honors top 1 percent of all hospitals nationally

Memorial Hospital of Carbondale has been honored by the Premier healthcare alliance with the 2007 Premier/CareScience Select Practice National Quality Award for superior patient outcomes in both quality and efficiency.

Memorial Hospital of Carbondale is one of 49 hospitals nationally, the top 1 percent of acute inpatient facilities, recognized with the Select Practice Award. Among the more than 4,700 acute care inpatient facilities in the United States eligible to receive the award, Memorial Hospital of Carbondale exhibited the highest level performance in both quality and efficiency of patient care.

“These hospitals represent the country’s elite healthcare facilities for patient care based on performance using objective measures of clinical outcomes and efficiencies,” said Richard A. Bankowitz, MD, MBA, FACP, vice president and medical director for Premier Healthcare Informatics.

Memorial Hospital of Carbondale did not apply for the award, but instead was identified as a top performer in quality and efficiency among all acute care facilities in the MEDPAR 2005 data, regardless of bed size or teaching status.

Hospital administrator George Maroney said he is pleased with the award, but added it is a secondary means of evaluation behind the opinion of Memorial’s patients. “A hospital’s most powerful tool is its reputation. And a reputation is built through the encounters you have on a daily basis with patients and their families.”

Select Practice data includes 16 different clinically relevant indicators of risk, more than any other national quality award or designation. The quality index is calculated by combining the outcome deviations for mortality, morbidity and complications into a single quality measure for each facility. The combined quality and efficiency ratings are used to determine the award recipients.