(Paoli, PA) – Paoli Hospital, part of Main Line Health, was today named among the nation’s Top Performers on Key Quality Measures by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in America. Paoli Hospital is recognized by The Joint Commission for exemplary performance in using evidence-based clinical processes that are shown to improve care for certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma, stroke and venous thromboembolism, as well as inpatient psychiatric services. Also named to the list was Riddle Hospital, part of Main Line Health.
Paoli Hospital is one of 620 hospitals in the U.S. earning the distinction of Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance and is recognized for achievement on the following measure sets: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care. The ratings are based on an aggregation of accountability measure data reported to The Joint Commission during the 2011 calendar year.
“I am so proud of the entire Paoli team for their commitment to excellence and to ensuring every patient who comes to us receives exceptional care,” says Barbara Tachovsky, president, Paoli Hospital. “This recognition by The Joint Commission serves as another validation that Paoli Hospital is fulfilling our mission of providing superior patient care to the communities we serve.”
The list of Top Performers increased by 50 percent from its debut last year and represents 18 percent of more than 3,400 eligible accredited hospitals reporting data. Each of the hospitals that were named as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures met two 95 percent (95/95) performance thresholds on 2011 accountability measure data. First, each hospital achieved performance of 95 percent or above on a single, composite score that includes all the accountability measures for which it reports data to The Joint Commission, including measures that had fewer than 30 eligible cases or patients. Second, each hospital met or exceeded 95 percent performance on every accountability measure for which it reports data to The Joint Commission, excluding any measures with fewer than 30 eligible cases or patients. A 95 percent score means a hospital provided an evidence-based practice 95 times out of 100 opportunities to provide the practice. Each accountability measure represents an evidence-based practice – for example, giving aspirin at arrival for heart attack patients, giving antibiotics one hour before surgery, and providing a home management plan for children with asthma.
“When we raise the bar and provide the proper guidance and tools, hospitals have responded with excellent results,” says Mark R. Chassin, M.D., FACP, M.P.P., M.P.H., president, The Joint Commission. “This capacity for continual improvement points toward a future in which quality and safety defects are dramatically reduced and high reliability is sought and achieved with regularity. Such day-to-day progress will slowly but surely transform today’s health care system into one that achieves unprecedented performance outcomes for the benefit of the patients.”
In addition to being included in today’s release of The Joint Commission’s “Improving America’s Hospitals” annual report, Paoli Hospital will be recognized on The Joint Commission’s Quality Check website (www.qualitycheck.org). The Top Performer program will be featured in the November issue of The Joint Commission Perspectives and the October issue of The Joint Commission: The Source.