Citrus Memorial Among Top 5% in Nation for Patient Safety

Citrus Memorial hospital was identified as a recipient of the 2011 HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence Award™, indicating that its patient safety ratings are in the top 5% of U.S. hospitals. In a new study released by HealthGrades, the nation's most trusted source of health care provider information, Citrus Memorial is one of only 268 hospitals in the country to receive this designation.

The study finds that Medicare patients at Patient Safety Excellence Award hospitals were 46.26% less likely to experience a patient safety event during the time period studied. In addition, if all hospitals performed at this level of distinction as Citrus Memorial approximately 174,358 patient safety events and 20,688 Medicare deaths could have been avoided while saving the federal government approximately $1.8 billion in excess healthcare costs from 2007 – 2009.

The eighth annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals study analyzed nearly 40 million hospitalization records from approximately 5,000 hospitals nationwide that participate in the Medicare program. Participation in the HealthGrades study is not voluntary, and hospitals cannot choose to opt out of the analysis.

Citrus Memorial CEO Ryan Beaty credits the dedicated staff of physicians, nurses, techs and therapists with the hospital’s ability to provide great outcomes. He said, “Our ability to provide our patients with the safest care possible is a direct result of our skilled staff. They really care about the quality of care patients receive from the time they enter the door to the time they’ve completed therapy or home healthcare. They are to be commended for a job well done.”

“We’ve seen great advances in medical care in the last few decades, but along with these miraculous advances come greater and greater risks. Hospitals like Citrus Memorial have shown definitively that it is possible to provide the best in medical care while still focusing on the safety of the patient,” said Rick May, MD, vice president of Clinical Quality Improvement at HealthGrades and co-author of the study.

The eighth annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study evaluates patient safety in U.S. hospitals. HeathGrades used Medicare inpatient data from the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) database and Patient Safety Indicator software from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to calculate event rates for 13 indicators of patient safety for all of the nation’s hospitals. All analysis was based on data from 2007 to 2009 with the exception of Foreign Body Left After a Procedure which was based only on data from 2009. These indicators identify the best-performing hospitals, or Patient Safety Excellence Award™ Hospitals, which represent the top 5% of all U.S. hospitals. HealthGrades developed this award to give patients more information about choosing a hospital.

In the HealthGrades analysis, the following are the patient safety indicators studied:

• Foreign body left in after procedure
• Death in low mortality Diagnostic Related Groupings (DRGs)
• Pressure ulcer (bed sores)
• Death among surgical inpatients with serious treatable complications (previously known as “Failure to Rescue”)
• Iatrogenic pneumothorax (collapsed lung)
• Catheter-related bloodstream infections
• Post-operative hip fracture
• Post-operative hemorrhage or hematoma
• Post-operative physiologic and metabolic derangements
• Post-operative respiratory failure
• Post-operative pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis
• Post-operative sepsis
• Post-operative abdominal wound dehiscence

About Citrus Memorial Health System
Citrus Memorial Health System is a 198 bed, private not-for-profit community hospital that provides healthcare services to residents of Citrus County and surrounding communities. More than 150 physicians and 1,000 employees provide a wide range of services at the Inverness campus and at medical offices and clinics in Citrus and Sumter Counties. Citrus Memorial is fully accredited by the Joint Commission and is fully licensed by the State of Florida.