St. Clare, St. Mary’s Recognized Among Best in the Nation for Providing Safe, Efficient and Effective Care
St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo and St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison are two of six SSM Health Care hospitals among the best in the nation at consistently providing outstanding patient care and setting a high standard in clinical excellence.
The six SSM hospitals achieved top performance in key quality areas in the Premier healthcare alliance QUEST Award for High-Value Healthcare. The SSM hospitals were honored during Premier’s annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition, held June 11-14 in San Antonio.
333 QUEST members participating from October 1, 2011 through September 2012 were eligible for the award.
St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo achieved top performance in all six of the areas measured in Premier’s national QUEST collaborative. It was one of only five hospitals in the country to achieve top performance in all measures:
- Reducing mortality by at least 31 percent;
- Reducing the average cost of care to less than $5,690 per discharge;
- Reliably delivering all evidence-based care measures to patients in the areas of heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care at least 95 percent of the time;
- Improving the hospital experience so that patients favorably rate their stay and would recommend the facility to others at least 73 percent of the time;
- Reducing preventable harm events; and
- Reducing readmissions by at least 12 percent.
“We are proud to accept this award on behalf of St. Clare Hospital’s employees who deliver high-quality, safe care to our patients each and every day,” said St. Clare President Sandy Anderson. “We hold in our hands the sacred trust given to us by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, our hospital’s founding congregation. We carry on the Sisters’ healing ministry, not only through our compassionate care, but also by monitoring and measuring data to ensure that we are always doing our very best for our patients.”
St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison achieved top performance in four of the six areas: delivering evidence-based care, reducing mortality, reducing cost of care and improving the patient experience.
“St. Mary’s staff focuses much attention on continuous quality improvement for the entire patient experience,” said Dr. Frank Byrne, President of St. Mary’s Hospital. “That means constantly looking at ways to make sure we’re delivering the highest quality care to our patients in the safest way possible. And we work with our sister SSM hospitals across four states to share best practices so that we are all learning from one another.”
Other top performing SSM hospitals include: St. Mary’s Hospital, Centralia, Ill.; SSM St. Joseph Hospital West, Lake Saint Louis, Mo.; SSM St. Clare Health Center, Fenton, Mo.; and St. Francis Hospital & Health Services, Maryville, Mo.
QUEST hospitals monitor and measure performance to ensure delivery of high-quality, cost-effective care. In their first four years, they’ve saved nearly 92,000 lives and $9 billion.
Premier is a performance improvement alliance of more than 2,800 U.S. hospitals and nearly 100,000 other healthcare sites working together to achieve high quality, cost-effective care for patients.
For more about Premier’s QUEST collaborative, visit: www.premierinc.com/quest
About SSM Health Care
SSM Health Care is a Catholic, not-for-profit health system with an international reputation as a pioneer in the use of quality measures to improve care. With more than 7,000 physicians and 25,800 employees in four states, SSM is one of the largest employers in every community it serves. It is located in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Illinois and Missouri. In every region, SSM facilities forge creative relationships in the community to foster healthier people and healthier neighborhoods. Through these relationships and at its various sites, SSM serves more than 1.5 million people annually. An early adopter of the electronic health record, SSM provides care in a range of convenient settings, including hospitals, a pediatric medical center, outpatient centers, rural and inner city clinics, surgery centers, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, physician offices, an emergency center, rehabilitation facilities, home care, and hospice. SSM was the first health care organization to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest award for quality.
