Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
On November 12, 2014, President Barack Obama and U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker named St. David's HealthCare a recipient of the 2014 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. This award is the nation's highest presidential honor and is awarded to organizations for performance excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership.
Read more about the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
Nation's 100 Top Hospitals® By Truven Health Analytics
On March 3, 2014, St. David's Medical Center and St. David's North Austin Medical Center were named among the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® by Truven Health Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters). Truven Health Analytics is a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare. This is the fifth consecutive year that St. David's Medical Center has received this prestigious ranking and the third consecutive year for St. David's North Austin Medical Center.
“We are proud that our facilities—St. David's Medical Center, which includes both our Heart Hospital of Austin and St. David's Georgetown Hospital campuses, and St. David's North Austin Medical Center—have been listed among the top hospitals in the nation,” David Huffstutler, president and chief executive officer of St. David's HealthCare, said. “This honor is a direct reflection of our commitment to providing the communities we serve with the highest level of quality and value.”
The Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals study evaluates performance in 10 areas—mortality; inpatient complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; post-discharge mortality; and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure and pneumonia.
15 Top Health System by Thomson Reuters
St. David's HealthCare and two El Paso-based hospitals, which together make up the HCA Central and West Texas Division, were named among the nation's 15 Top Health Systems by Thomson Reuters. This award recognizes hospital systems that have achieved excellence in clinical outcomes, patient safety, patient satisfaction and operational efficiency. Selected from more than 300 healthcare systems across the nation, St. David's HealthCare is the only system in Central Texas to receive this prestigious ranking in 2012 and only one of two in the entire state.
Unlike many rankings of this type that are more subjective in nature, the Thomson Reuters 15 Top Health Systems study is an annual, quantitative research study that uses objective methodology and independent public data to recognize the best U.S. hospital systems. The public data come primarily from the 2010 Medicare provider data and the Center for Medicare Services' Hospital Compare data sets. Building on the 100 Top Hospitals® National Balanced Scorecard concept, it is the only study that aggregates individual hospital performance into system-level data. The annual study compares hospital systems against those of similar size based on total operating expense and evaluates them on measures of clinical quality and efficiency.
Similar to the methodology used to identify the 100 Top Hospitals®, Thomas Reuters identified the 15 Top Health Systems by scoring health systems on a set of eight performance measures centered on quality of care, efficiency and consumer satisfaction.
Texas Award for Performance Excellence
Utilizing the same criteria and process as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the Texas Award for Performance Excellence is an annual recognition of Texas organizations that have achieved performance excellence and have applied outstanding quality principles in their day-to-day operations. The award is presented to organizations that serve as role models for quality, customer satisfaction, and performance excellence in the state of Texas.
Administered by the Quality Texas Foundation, the Texas Award for Performance Excellence was established in 1993. The award is open to government, education, healthcare, non-profit and other businesses. These organizations go through a rigorous application process where quality and performance excellence must be demonstrated on a variety of measures including: organizational leadership; strategic planning; focus on customers; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and results.
The Texas Award for Performance Excellence is the highest honor bestowed by the State of Texas based upon world-class quality measures. Further, 2008 marks the first time ever that an entire multi-hospital health care system has received this coveted award, and obviously, we are the first health care organization in Central Texas to receive this honor. This recognition is a tribute to all of the outstanding individuals who make up the St. David's HealthCare team.
Texas Health Care Quality Improvement Award
St. David's Medical Center has received the Texas Health Care Quality Improvement Award of Excellence from TMF® Health Quality Institute, the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Texas. TMF established the awards program in partnership with The Texas Hospital Association, Texas Medical Association, Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals and Texas Osteopathic Medical Association to honor Texas hospitals that are performing quality initiatives aimed at improving outcomes in patient care. TMF recognizes St. David's Medical Center for improving the hospital's performance on specific national quality measures.
The awards acknowledge hospitals for improving care related to acute myocardial infarction or AMI (heart attack), heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. These clinical areas have been designated as national health care priorities by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and The Joint Commission, an independent nonprofit, standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.
The awards recognize hospitals that are active in quality improvement and have made the required improvements on a composite scoring system, called the Appropriate Care Measure (ACM). For acute care hospitals, the ACM consists of 24 quality indicators: eight AMI, four heart failure, seven pneumonia and five surgical care measures.
St. David's HealthCare Hospitals Designated as 2014 Texas Ten Step Facilities
The Department of State Health Services and the Texas Hospital Association recognized St. David's Women's Center of Texas (located at St. David's North Austin Medical Center), St. David's Round Rock Medical Center, St. David's South Austin Medical Center, St. David's Medical Center and St. David's Georgetown Hospital as 2014 Texas Ten Step Program facilities. This designation is awarded to birthing facilities that provide optimal care to improve breastfeeding outcomes and the health of newborns and infants.
The Texas Ten Step Program encourages breastfeeding as the preferred method of feeding for newborns and infants. This designation signifies that these St. David's HealthCare facilities are providing an environment that supports new mothers and their decision to breastfeed.
Based on the World Health Organization and UNICEF's Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding, the program is designed to assist a birthing facility's support of breastfeeding mothers before, during and after delivery; encourage hospitals to identify breastfeeding resources for mothers after they are discharged; and assist facilities in improving upon national performance measures such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Breastfeeding Report Card. The goal of the Texas Ten Step Program is to have 82 percent of infants exclusively breastfeeding when discharged.
To be identified as a Texas Ten Step facility, hospitals must:
- Address 85 percent of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding;
- Be designated as a Texas Mother-Friendly Worksite;
- Evaluate their breastfeeding policies and maternity care practices;
- And routinely educate all healthcare staff with evidence-based courses.
The Texas Medical Association officially endorsed the Texas Ten Step Program in 2009 to encourage hospitals to create an environment that supports breastfeeding mothers.
For more information about the Texas Ten Step Program, call Veronica Hendrix, program coordinator, at (512) 341-4592 or visit the Texas Ten Step website.
St. David's HealthCare
With more than 90 sites across Central Texas, St. David's HealthCare includes seven of the area's leading hospitals and is one of the largest health systems in Texas. Known for compassionate, high-quality care, the organization has been recognized with the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the State of Texas based upon world-class quality measures. In 2014, two of the system's facilities—St. David's Medical Center and St. David's North Austin Medical Center—were named among the nation's 100 Top Hospitals by Truven Health Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters), a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare. St. David's HealthCare was also recognized as one of the top 15 health systems in the U.S. by Thomson Reuters in 2012. Additionally, St. David's Medical Center—which includes Heart Hospital of Austin—was named a Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospital for 2013. Perennially ranked as the top Austin-area employer among large companies by the Austin Business Journal's annual “Best Places to Work” survey, St. David's HealthCare is the fourth-largest private employer in the Austin area, with more than 8,100 employees. For more information, please visit the St. David's HealthCare website.