UPMC Western Maryland has been recognized by HealthGrades as one of America’s 50 Best™ hospitals for Cardiac Surgery.  HealthGrades, the leading online resource helping consumers make informed decisions in order to find the right doctor, the right hospital, and the right care, evaluated nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 33 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions and identified the 50 best-performing hospitals across all conditions or procedures within this service line.

The achievement is part of findings released this week online and in the Healthgrades 2016 Report to the Nation.  The new report demonstrates how clinical performance continues to differ dramatically between hospitals both nationally and regionally.  This variation in care may have a significant impact on health outcomes.  For example, from 2012 through 2014, if all hospitals as a group, performed similarly to hospitals receiving 5 stars as a group, on average 222,392 lives could potentially have been saved and 166,086 complications could potentially have been avoided.*

“We are extremely pleased to earn this recognition from HealthGrades,” explained Barry Ronan, President and CEO at UPMC Western Maryland.  “Providing quality care to our patients is what matters most at WMHS, and our medical team, headed by cardiac surgeon Mark Nelson, and our staff work together to ensure this level of exceptional care.”   

“The Healthgrades 2016 Report to the Nation reveals striking disparities in quality at the local level, and underscores why it is vital for consumers to understand outcomes performance at alternative hospitals for specific conditions and procedures,” said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer for Healthgrades.  “Hospitals with superior outcomes for certain aspects of care may not perform as well in other areas.  Moreover, there may be many hospitals within a geographical region, but only a few may provide better-than-expected outcomes for the specific care a patient needs.  Those hospitals that have achieved the Healthgrades distinction have demonstrated a commitment to exceptional quality care.”

A 5-star rating indicates that UPMC Western Maryland’s clinical outcomes are statistically significantly better than expected when treating the condition or conducting the procedure being evaluated. UPMC Western Maryland has received 5-star ratings for coronary bypass surgery, pacemaker procedures and total knee replacement for the past three years.

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 40 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide, and assessed hospital performance relative to each of 33 common conditions and procedures.  Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality.  Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5-star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3-star (not statistically different from expected), and 1 star (statistically significantly worse than expected) categories.  The complete Healthgrades 2016 Report to the Nation with detailed cohort-specific outcomes data, hospital-specific quality achievements, and detailed study methodology can be found at www.healthgrades.com/quality.

*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2012 through 2014 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.

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