October 22, 2007
St. John’s Orthopedics Program Ranked Among
Top 5% In The Nation
Joplin, MO (October 15, 2007) -- According to the Tenth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study issued today, St. John’s Medical Center ranks among the top 5% in the nation for joint replacement for the second consecutive year. The study, the largest of its kind, analyzed patient outcomes at virtually all of the nation's 5,000 hospitals over the years 2004, 2005 and 2006.
The study also found that St. John’s Medical Center is:
Five-Star Rated for Total Knee Replacement
Five-Star Rated for Total Hip Replacement
The Tenth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study identifies key trends in the quality of care provided by approximately 5,000 hospitals nationwide. HealthGrades researchers analyzed Medicare discharges from virtually every U.S. hospital between 2004 and 2006. Risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates were calculated and hospitals were assigned a 1-star (poor), 3-star (as expected), or 5-star (best) quality rating for 28 diagnoses and procedures from heart failure to hip replacement to pneumonia.
Based on the study, HealthGrades today made available its 2008 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.
“Our research shows that while the overall quality of hospital care in America is improving, the gap between the best-performing hospitals and the worst persists,” said Dr. Samantha Collier, HealthGrades’ chief medical officer and author of the study. “This persistent gap makes it imperative that anyone planning to be admitted to a hospital do their homework and seek out highly rated facilities.”
Among the study’s key findings:
• Gaps persist between the “best” and the “worst” hospitals across all procedures and conditions studied. Five-star rated hospitals, had statistically significantly lower risk-adjusted mortality across all three years studied.
• Across all procedures and conditions studied, there was an approximate 71 percent lower chance of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to a 1-star rated hospital.
• Across all procedures and conditions studied, there was an approximate 52 percent lower chance of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to the U.S. hospital average.
The 2008 HealthGrades ratings for all hospitals nationwide are available, free of charge, on the organization’s award-winning consumer Web site, located at www.healthgrades.com. More than three million individuals and employees of some of the nation’s largest employers and health plans visit HealthGrades each 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.
St. John's Regional Medical Center is a 367-bed facility, serving 19 counties in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas, providing state-of-the-art healthcare services, specializing in cardiology, orthopedics, neurosciences, and oncology. St. John’s has been leading the way in healthcare throughout the four-state area for more than 100 years and has earned the Gold Seal of Approval from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).