Sierra Medical Center has received HealthGrades 2006 General Surgery Excellence AwardTM, according to information recently released by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading provider of independent hospital ratings. Sierra Medical Center is the only hospital in the El Paso region to receive the award. To qualify for the award, Sierra Medical Center was ranked among the top five percent of hospitals in the United States for general surgery services. The recognition is based on HealthGrades annual analysis of more than 37 million Medicare patient discharges at nearly every hospital in the country.
Sierra Medical Center also received five-star ratings for overall general surgery services, as well as appendectomy and cholecystectomy according to HealthGrades. These achievements make Sierra Medical Center the best rated hospital in the El Paso region for general surgery services.
"It’s an honor to be ranked among the top hospitals in the country for general surgery services by an independent source such as HealthGrades," said Thomas Casaday, Sierra Providence Health Network President and CEO. "I’d like to congratulate our physicians and staff for their dedication to quality and the outstanding patient outcomes they provide to this community."
As part of its eighth 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 2006 ratings, objectively assessing their clinical outcomes and quality. The data utilized in the assessment is licensed from the federal government’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and is risk-adjusted, so that hospitals with differing patient populations can be compared on equal footing.
The 2006 General Surgery Excellence Award is partially based data provided by the state of Texas, in addition to the CMS data. The HealthGrades ratings 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).
"Each year HealthGrades identifies the top performers in several clinical areas, and we’re happy to announce Sierra Medical Center is a recipient of the 2006 General Surgery Excellence Award," said Samantha Collier, M.D., HealthGrades vice president of medical affairs.
The 2006 HealthGrades ratings for all hospitals nationwide are available to consumers, free of charge, on the web at www.healthgrades.com. More than two-and-a-half million individuals, and more than 125 of the nation’s largest employers rely on HealthGrades web site to research quality information about hospitals, nursing homes and physicians. HealthGrades also rates hospitals’ patient safety outcomes, based on indicators developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
ABOUT SIERRA PROVIDENCE HEALTH NETWORK
Sierra Providence Health Network, part of Tenet Texas, consists of three hospitals located in El Paso, Texas: 351-bed Sierra Medical Center, located at 1625 Medical Center Drive, 508-bed Providence Memorial Hospital, located at 2001 N. Oregon, and a 72-bed physical rehabilitation hospital, Sierra Providence Physical Rehabilitation Hospital, located at 1740 Curie. Sierra Medical Center, Providence Memorial Hospital and the Children’s Hospital at Providence are acute care hospitals that offer a broad spectrum of medical and surgical services for adults and children, including cardiac care and rehabilitation, cancer care and support services, women’s services and emergency care. Other network clinical specialties include dedicated children’s emergency room, kidney transplant, gamma knife radiosurgery, Hospice, Bariatrics Center and health care services for chronically ill children. Sierra Providence Physical Rehabilitation provides a broad spectrum of rehabilitation services and is equipped to handle brain injuries and other serious disorders and is accredited by both the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
Sierra Medical Center and Providence Memorial Hospital are accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency. To learn more about Sierra Providence Health Network, visit www.sphn.com.
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.
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