Member News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
October 15, 2008

SwedishAmerican Quality Award Ranks Its Care Among Top 5% Nationally

SwedishAmerican Hospital has received the 2009 clinical excellence award for cardiac surgery from HealthGrades, the healthcare ratings company. This award places SwedishAmerican Hospital's clinical outcomes in the top five percent nationally for cardiac surgery. A representative from HealthGrades will present a trophy to SwedishAmerican on Wednesday, October 29, at 10:45 in the Hospital’s Conference Center.

SwedishAmerican Hospital's 2009 HealthGrades clinical achievements include:

  • Ranked Among the top 5 (#2) in IL for Cardiac Surgery
  • Five-Star Rated for Cardiac Surgery
  • Five-Star Rated for Coronary Bypass Surgery
  • Five-Star Rated for Treatment of Heart Failure

"We are very pleased to receive this honor", said Dr. Bill Gorski, President and CEO for SwedishAmerican. "Giving the highest quality of care to our community is of great importance to our physicians and staff. To be recognized by an independent study is especially gratifying."

These findings were included in the eleventh annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality In America Study, which is the most comprehensive study of its kind, analyzing more than 41 million Medicare hospitalization records from 2005 to 2007 at the nation’s approximately 5,000 non-federal hospitals. According to the study, if all hospitals performed at the level of five-star rated hospital, 237,420 Medicare deaths could potentially have been prevented over the three years studies. More than half of these preventable deaths were associated with four conditions: sepsis, pneumonia, heart failure and respiratory failure.

While overall death rates declined from 2005-2007, the nation's best-performing hospitals were able to reduce preventable deaths at a much faster rate than poor-performing hospitals, resulting in large state, regional and hospital-to-hospital variations in the quality of patient care, the study found.

Based on the study, HealthGrades has made available its 2009 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.