The nation's leading healthcare accrediting agency has recognized six Houston-area institutions in its annual hospital performance report. Of those, Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital have been named two of 405 "top performers" nationally on key quality metrics by The Joint Commission. This new program recognizes accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals that attain and sustain excellence in accountability measure performance.
Based on performance related to nearly two dozen accountability measures for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care and children's asthma care, The Joint Commission report singles out hospitals in 45 states. The list of top performing hospitals and the measure set or sets for which each hospital was recognized are available online at http://www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.
Memorial Hermann Memorial City was recognized in heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care and is one of only two hospitals in Houston to achieve this level of performance and recognition. Memorial Hermann Sugar Land was recognized in pneumonia and surgical care.
"Today, the public expects transparency in the reporting of performance at the hospitals where they receive care, and The Joint Commission is shining a light on the top performing hospitals that have achieved excellence on a number of vital measures of quality of care," says Mark R. Chassin, MD, FACP, MPP, MPH, president, The Joint Commission. "Hospitals that commit themselves to accreditation-related quality improvement efforts such as the use of evidence-based treatments create better outcomes for patients and, ultimately, a healthier nation.
"The Joint Commission's sixth annual report, which presents scientific evidence of hospital performance and how it relates to common medical conditions and procedures, demonstrates continual improvement on accountability measures over a nine-year period. The newest data shows significant progress in consistently using evidence-based treatments. In 2002, hospitals achieved 81.8 percent composite performance on 957,000 opportunities to perform care processes related to accountability measures. In 2010, hospitals achieved 96.6 percent composite performance on 12.3 million opportunities - a nine-year improvement of 14.8 percentage points
"This is truly a testament to the commitment of our entire staff. It makes me proud to work with a great group of people who are committed to quality," said Jim Brown, CEO of Memorial Hermann Sugar Land. "I am honored to work with a medical staff that shows leadership and foresight in using evidence-based treatments. This is validation that everyone's hard work and dedication is paying off and that our patients are benefiting."
"I am so thrilled and honored that Memorial Hermann Memorial City has been recognized by The Joint Commission as a Top Performer," said Keith Alexander, CEO of Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center. "Our physicians and staff work as a team to ensure our patients receive the benefits afforded by these evidence based processes. I really believe this achievement is indicative of the strength of that teamwork and dedication to patient care, and reflects the culture of our organization and leadership.
The Joint Commission - the nation's oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care - evaluates and accredits more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, including more than 10,300 hospitals and home care organizations.