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March 13, 2009
Hospital News
VENICE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER RECEIVES
CLINICAL EXCELLENCE AWARD FOR CARDIAC SURGERY CARE
Venice Regional Medical Center’s quality awards rank its care among the top 10% nationally and #3 in Florida Findings are based on HealthGrades’ 11th Annual Hospital Quality in America Study
DATELINE (October 14, 2008) – Venice Regional Medical Center today announced that it has received the 2009 specialty excellence award for Cardiac Surgery from HealthGrades, the healthcare ratings company. This award place Venice Regional Medical Center’s clinical outcomes in the top ten percent nationally for cardiac surgery. In addition to its #3 in Florida ranking for Cardiac Surgery, Venice Regional Medical Center is also five-star rated for Coronary Bypass Surgery and Coronary Interventional Procedures. According to HealthGrades analysis, Venice Regional Medical Center is best in the Sarasota/Bradenton area for spine surgery and has received five star ratings in Joint Replacement, Spine Surgery, Total Knee Replacement and Back and Neck Surgery.
“Venice Regional Medical Center is privileged to have a talented medical staff who, coupled with our outstanding nursing staff, make it possible to earn the clinical quality recognition we have enjoyed,” said Melody Trimble, chief executive officer of Venice Regional Medical Center. These findings were included in the eleventh annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study, which is the most comprehensive study of its kind, analyzing more than 41 million Medicare hospitalization records from 2005 to 2007 at the nation’s approximately 5,000 non-federal hospitals. According to the study, if all hospitals performed at the level of five-star rated hospitals, 237,420 Medicare deaths could potentially have been prevented over the three years studied. More than half of those preventable deaths were associated with four conditions: sepsis, pneumonia, heart failure and respiratory failure. While overall death rates declined from 2005 to 2007, the nation’s best-performing hospitals were able to reduce preventable deaths at a much faster rate than poor-performing hospitals, resulting in large state, regional and hospital-to-hospital variations in the quality of patient care, the study found.
“Providing the best quality has to be the ultimate goal of every hospital in the country and we are very pleased that our hospital was one of the early participants in the CMS quality initiatives when participation was still voluntary,” according to Trimble. “That intense focus on quality continues at our hospital today.” Based on the study, HealthGrades today made available its 2009 quality ratings for virtually every hospital in the country at www.healthgrades.com, a Web site designed to help individuals research and compare local healthcare providers.
On its Web site, HealthGrades offers, free to consumers, quality ratings of 27 procedures and treatments for virtually every hospital in the country. The Web site is designed so that consumers can easily compare patient outcomes at their local hospitals for procedures ranging from aortic aneurysm repair to bypass surgery. Each hospital receives a star rating based on its patient outcomes in terms of mortality or complication rates for each procedure or treatment. Hospitals with outcomes that are above average to a statistically significant degree receive a five-star rating. Hospitals with average outcomes receive a three-star rating, and hospitals with outcomes that are below average receive a one-star rating. Because no two hospitals or their patients’ risk profiles are alike, HealthGrades employs extensive risk-adjustment algorithms to ensure that it is making analogous comparisons.
Venice Regional Medical Center is a 312-bed, state of the art hospital with a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services. Specialized services include a comprehensive cardiac program that has been recognized as one of the best in Sarasota County, and a highly rated joint replacement program. The hospital also provides an array of outpatient services at two convenient locations in Venice.
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