Provena Mercy Medical Center Named Top Ten Percent in the Nation for Cardiac Surgery
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hospital Contact
MaryEllen Coombs
(630) 801-5535
MaryEllen.Coombs@provena.org
HealthGrades Contact
Scott Shapiro
(720) 963-6584
sshapiro@healthgrades.com
Provena Mercy Medical Center
Named Among the Top Ten Percent in the Nation
For Cardiac Surgery
Aurora, IL (November 7, 2006) – Provena Mercy Medical Center announced today that it has been ranked among the top ten percent of hospitals in the nation for cardiac surgery, according to a comprehensive study released by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading healthcare ratings company. Due to the Aurora medical center’s outstanding patient outcomes and five star ratings for coronary artery bypass surgery, Provena Mercy Medical Center has been named a HealthGrades 2007 Cardiac Surgery Excellence Award™ recipient. The medical center is the only health care facility in the region to receive this designation.
“Once again being recognized by HealthGrades and achieving the prestigious Award of Excellence for cardiac surgery is a testimony to Provena Mercy Medical Center’s commitment to providing the Fox Valley community with the most advanced level of care,” said William Brown, president and chief executive officer of Provena Mercy Medical Center. “I applaud the surgeons and care team for earning an honor of this distinction and affirming our community’s trust in the care they receive at Provena Mercy.”
As part of its ninth annual Hospital Quality in America Study, HealthGrades independently analyzed more than 5,000 hospitals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia for its 2007 ratings, objectively assessing their clinical outcomes and quality. The 40 million hospitalization records utilized in the assessment are publicly available and licensed from the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The HealthGrades ratings take into account varying degrees of patient severity from hospital to hospital and measure whether patient outcomes for each of more than two dozen procedures and diagnoses are better than expected (5-Star), as expected (3-Star) or worse than expected (1-Star).
“Consumers continue to ask for more and better information to help them in their health care decision making,” said Samantha Collier, M.D., HealthGrades’ vice president of medical affairs. “Our analysis provides an apples-to-apples comparison of hospital performance by procedure or diagnosis, and it is evident there is significant variance between individual hospitals. For Provena Mercy Medical Center to be identified as one of the top cardiac surgery programs in the country reflects the efforts of everybody in the organization, and should be very comforting to area residents.”
“Provena Mercy is steadfastly dedicated to assuring the communities we are privileged to serve have access to advanced technology, leading physicians and compassionate, talented caregivers,” Brown added. “Our patients often have a choice in where to receive their care. Awards such as that from HealthGrades instill confidence in choosing Provena Mercy Medical Center.”
The 2007 HealthGrades ratings for all hospitals nationwide are available, free of charge, on HealthGrades’ consumer Web site, located at www.healthgrades.com. More than three million individuals and employees of more than 125 major employers visit the HealthGrades web site every month to access quality information about hospitals, nursing homes and physicians. HealthGrades also provides consumers and payers with detailed assessments of hospitals’ patient-safety outcomes, based on indicators developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
About Provena Mercy Medical Center
Provena Mercy Medical Center is a nationally recognized, 356-bed leading provider of high-quality, multi-specialty health care and is part of Provena Health, a Catholic health system that includes six hospitals, 14 long-term care and senior residential facilities, and over 40 clinics in Illinois and Indiana. Provena Health ministries are sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, the Servants of the Holy Heart of Mary and the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas.
About HealthGrades
HealthGrades (Nasdaq:HGRD) is the leading healthcare ratings company, providing ratings and profiles of hospitals, nursing homes and physicians to consumers, corporations, health plans and hospitals. Millions of consumers and hundreds of the nation’s largest employers, health plans and hospitals rely on HealthGrades’ independent ratings to make healthcare decisions based on the quality of care. More information on the company can be found at http://www.healthgrades.com.
