St. David’s HealthCare announced today that all of its Austin hospitals received a Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award™. This distinction places St. David’s Medical Center (including Heart Hospital of Austin and St. David’s Georgetown Hospital campuses), St. David’s North Austin Medical Center and St. David’s South Austin Medical Center among the top 5% of all short-term acute care hospitals in the nation reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems.
St. David’s Medical Center was also recognized with a Healthgrades 2020 Outstanding Patient Experience Award™, making the hospital among the top 2% of eligible hospitals in the nation to receive both awards. This distinction recognizes St. David’s Medical Center for excellent performance in safeguarding patients from serious, potentially preventable complications, as well as providing a positive experience for patients during their hospital stay.
“Providing safe, high-quality care to every patient every day has long been our mission, and the COVID-19 pandemic has increased awareness of its importance,” David Huffstutler, president and chief executive officer of St. David’s HealthCare, said. “This recognition underscores our commitment to providing the highest level of patient safety and care.”
Healthgrades evaluated more than 4,500 hospitals and recognized 88 elite hospitals that achieved both patient safety and patient experience distinctions.
Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award™
During the study period (2016 through 2018), Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospitals demonstrated excellent performance in safeguarding Medicare patients, as measured by objective outcomes—risk-adjusted patient safety indicator (PSI) rates—for 14 PSIs defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
If all hospitals in the country performed at the level of award recipients for each of the PSIs evaluated by AHRQ, 110,864 patient safety events could have been avoided. In addition, Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award achieved better outcomes than those treated in non-recipient hospitals. On average, patients are*:
- 48.3% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest
- 54.4% less likely to experience a hip fracture following surgery
- 66.8% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital
- 63% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital
Healthgrades 2020 Outstanding Patient Experience Award™
In addition to being recognized as a Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient, St. David’s Medical Center also out-performed peer hospitals in providing outstanding patient experience.
Healthgrades evaluated performance by applying a scoring methodology for 10 patient experience measures using data collected from a 29-question experience survey from the hospital’s own patients. The survey questions focus on patients’ perspectives of the care they receive in a hospital, ranging from cleanliness and noise levels in patient rooms to factors such as provider communication and responsiveness to patients’ needs. The measures also include whether a patient would recommend the hospital to friends or family.
“The elite hospitals recognized with both the Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Award and Healthgrades 2020 Outstanding Patient Experience Award are organizations that are delivering the highest levels of care when it comes to the experience and safety of their patients,” Brad Bowman, M.D., chief medical officer of Healthgrades, said. “Consumers can have confidence that these hospitals will deliver quality care.”
You can learn more about the hospital quality methodologies for the Healthgrades Awards online.