News/PR
Bay Medical Center Recognized in National Quality Study
April 24, 2006
Ranked Among Top Five Percent in the Nation for the Third Consecutive Year, According to HealthGrades
Panama City, Florida – Bay Medical Center announced today that it has been named a recipient of the 2006 Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical ExcellenceTM, based on a study issued by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings company.
In the study, Bay Medical is rated best in northwest Florida for overall clinical quality, as the area’s only recipient of the 2006 HealthGrades award. Bay Medical also joins a list of 89 U.S. hospitals, out of more than 5,100 evaluated by HealthGrades, to receive this award in each of the past three years (2004 – 2006).
Hospitals receiving the award were rated in the top five percent in the nation, in terms of mortality and complication rates, across 26 procedures and diagnoses evaluated by HealthGrades. Patients treated at Distinguished Hospitals are, on average, 27 percent more likely to survive their hospitalization, and 14 percent less likely to suffer from a major complication.
“Quality care is our top priority. Providing our patients and families with the best care possible is inherent in our mission, vision, and values,” said Steve Johnson, president and chief executive officer at Bay Medical Center. “Being named as a top hospital in one of the largest healthcare studies in America, for the third straight year, validates our commitment to excellence.”
Bay Medical Center also received HealthGrades’ Specialty Excellence Awards for orthopedics, stroke, pulmonary care, gastrointestinal care and general surgery, ranking among the top ten percent of U.S. hospitals for those services. Bay Medical ranked among the top ten percent nationally and was rated best in northwest Florida for heart surgery as well.
Overall, Bay Medical received HealthGrades highest five-star rating in several procedures and diagnoses, including heart surgery, treatment of heart attack and atrial fibrillation, stroke, hip fracture repair, pneumonia care, spinal fusion surgery, general surgery, gall bladder surgery and carotid endarterectomy (a procedure to clear blockages in the main head-neck artery).
Each year, HealthGrades independently analyzes the clinical quality performance of all non-federal hospitals across the country in more than two dozen common medical procedures and diagnoses. Hospitals that receive the HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence are those that rank in the top five percent when all of the individual scores are aggregated into an overall score. Only 277 hospitals out of 5,122 evaluated nationwide qualified for this prestigious award in 2006.
In its clinical research study, which looks at tens of millions of hospitalization records over the years 2002, 2003 and 2004, HealthGrades estimates that if all patients went to Distinguished Hospitals, 152,966 lives could have been saved and 21,896 post-operative complications could have been avoided
“At Bay Medical Center, we have a skillful and dedicated team of clinicians and employees,” said Johnson. “It is because of their hard work that our patients and their families receive high-quality healthcare that is once again being recognized among the best in the nation.”
The HealthGrades clinical excellence study, along with ratings for all nonfederal hospitals in the U.S., are available free of charge on the internet at www.healthgrades.com.
For more information about clinical quality excellence at Bay Medical Center, please call Christa Hild at 747-6542.