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 For more than 50 years the doctors, nurses, and all the staff at Jefferson Regional Medical Center have worked to make sure the hospital is as safe as possible for patients and visitors. Validation of those efforts arrived for 2009 when the hospital was named one of the top-performing hospitals in the country. On April 7 HealthGrades announced its 2009 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipients based on data from nearly 5,000 hospitals in the U.S. Jefferson Regional was rated in the top 5 percent nationwide, and one of only three in the St. Louis region. The study examined patient safety information collected by Medicare and tabulated by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. “Patient safety is of the utmost importance to us, so we are very proud to have received this distinction,” said Jefferson Health System President and CEO Lloyd Ford, PhD, FACHE. “We know that our employees and medical staff are diligent about preventing errors, accidents or other difficulties for patients under our care.” Beverly Johnson, RN, Vice President of Patient Care Services at Jefferson Regional, attributed the distinction to the work of physicians and all clinical staff including nurses, nurses aids, therapists and others offering direct patient care. “We have such a dedicated staff and they all deserve credit for this achievement,” Johnson said. “From the triage nurse who is the first person to see a patient in the emergency department, the admitting staff, the catheterization lab or operating rooms, and on all the floor, our staff offers levels of service from intensive care to personal compassion.” As the chief Nursing Officer Johnson has established a Patient Safety Committee to focus on elimination of potential errors in patient care. “The patient safety committee looks at all things that could put patients at risk,” Johnson said. “We are going to focus on achieving national patient safety goals, and we are called on to eliminate or reduce errors.” Rick May, MD, is the senior physician consultant for HealthGrades and co-author of the study. Many of the errors reflected in the report are preventable, he said. “The good news is that there are hospitals that are doing an amazing job when it comes to patient safety, and we commend them,” Dr. May said. “Patients need to know that they have a substantially lower risk of experiencing a medical errors and therefore a lower risk of complications when they are admitted to one of these exceptional top-performing hospitals.” Among the study highlights is the comparison that determined patients treated at the top-performing hospitals like Jefferson Regional had a 43 percent lower chance of experiencing a medical error than those treated at the poorest performing facilities. The sixth annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospital Study reviewed the records of more than 900,000 patients at virtually all non-federal hospitals in the country in 12 patient safety indicators including bed sores, post-operative complications, falls, excessive bleeding, selective infections, accidental puncture or laceration, and others. If all hospitals performed at the level of Jefferson Regional and all other Patient Safety Excellence Award hospitals, approximately 211,697 patient safety events and 22,771 Medicare deaths could have been avoided while saving the U.S. approximately $2.0 billion from 2005 through 2007, according to the study data. “Every hospital across the country should continually strive for improvement until their rate of patient safety events is as close to zero as possible,” Dr. May said. “We congratulate Jefferson Regional Medical Center because they continually demonstrate their extraordinary commitment to the reduction of patient safety events.” Jefferson Regional Medical Center is a 226-bed, non-profit community hospital located at the intersection of U.S. Highways 61 and 67 in Crystal City, Mo. For more information call 1-800-931-JRMC (5762) or visit the website www.jhsmo.com. Jefferson Regional in state’s Top 10 For Cardiac Care. Hospital earns HealthGrades distinction for the second consecutive year Jefferson Regional Medical Center has been ranked in the top 10 in Missouri for overall cardiac care for 2009. The distinction is the second in succession for the hospital, according to HealthGrades, the leading independent national healthcare ratings company. In addition, Jefferson Regional received a “Five-Star” rating (out of five) for treatment of heart failure, treatment of pneumonia for seven years in a row, and treatment for respiratory failure two years in a row. “The dedication to patient care by all of our employees and the medical staff at Jefferson Regional is reflected in this award,” said President and CEO Lloyd Ford, PhD, FACHE. “Earning the distinction in several categories and for multiple years indicates the high quality of our services throughout the facility.” The findings were included in the 11th annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study, which analyzed the most currently available medical records for Medicare patients at nearly 5,000 hospitals across the country. Bassam Roukoz, MD, FACC, is the medical director for the Deles Heart and Vascular Center at Jefferson Regional. Everyone at the medical center and the entire community should be proud of the achievement. “This is a team effort, and we will be pushing for a better job every day. Our patients will be the ultimate winners,” Dr. Roukoz said. Jefferson Regional Medical Center is a 226-bed, non-profit community hospital located at the intersection of U.S. Highways 61 and 67 in Crystal City, Mo |
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