Healthgrades Announces the Recipients of the Healthgrades 2021 Patient Safety Excellence Awards and Healthgrades 2021 Outstanding Patient Experience Awards

Healthgrades, the leading marketplace that connects patients and providers, today announced the recipients of the Healthgrades 2021 Patient Safety Excellence Awards™ and Healthgrades 2021 Outstanding Patient Experience Awards™. These awards recognize the top hospitals across the nation that excel in providing top quality care for their patients, while preventing serious injuries during hospital stays and providing patients with exceptional and positive experiences.

Healthgrades also published “Celebrating a Patient-Centric Culture: Healthgrades Top Hospitals for Patient Safety & Experience,” a new report that focuses on the importance of hospitals providing patient-centric care and the impact that patient safety and patient experience has on overall care outcomes. This report also features a supplemental analysis on how patient safety and patient experience varies by different regions throughout the country. The Pacific Division¹ ranked highest for the proportion of hospitals receiving the 2021 Patient Safety Excellence Award, while the Midwest Region¹ leads the nation with the highest number of 2021 Outstanding Patient Experience Award recipient hospitals, 155 hospitals in total.

“As the nation recovers from the pandemic, hospitals and health systems have an increased focus on maintaining a culture of quality, especially as consumers are more discerning than ever when it comes to their healthcare decisions,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “As the healthcare landscape continues to change, consumers can feel confident knowing that the hospitals that have been recognized with a Healthgrades 2021 Patient Safety Excellence Award and Outstanding Patient Experience Award are providing a positive patient experience and an overall exceptional outcome for patients and communities.”

Healthgrades 2021 Patient Safety Excellence Award™

For the annual analysis, Healthgrades recognized 453 hospitals as a 2021 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient. During the study period (2017 through 2019), the analysis found that four patient safety indicators accounted for 72% of all patient safety events (collapsed lung, hip fracture due to an in-hospital fall, pressure or bed sores and catheter-related bloodstream infections). Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Healthgrades 2021 Patient Safety Excellence Award were, on average²:

• 50.3% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals. ²
• 60.3% less likely to experience an in-hospital fall resulting in hip fracture, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals. ²
• 66.5% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals. ²
• 65.4% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at non- recipient hospitals. ²

Additionally, the analysis found that there were 190,273 potentially preventable patient safety events among Medicare patients in U.S. hospitals. ² If all hospitals, as a group, performed similarly to Patient Safety Excellence Award recipients, on average, 53,624 patient safety events could have been avoided. ²

From 2017 through 2019, Healthgrades 2021 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospitals demonstrated excellent performance in safeguarding Medicare patients, as measured by objective outcomes—risk-adjusted patient safety indicator (PSI) rates—for 13 PSIs defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). A 14^th PSI included in the evaluation is Foreign Objects Left in Body During a Surgery or Procedure, which is a “never” event and does not have an expected rate.

Healthgrades 2021 Outstanding Patient Experience Award™

Healthgrades evaluated 3,297 hospitals that submitted at least 100 patient experience surveys to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), covering admissions from January 2019 to December 2019. Of those hospitals evaluated, 417 hospitals outperformed their peers—based on their patients’ responses—and achieved the Healthgrades 2021 Outstanding Patient Experience Award.

To perform this analysis, Healthgrades applied a scoring methodology to 10 patient experience measures, using data collected from a 29-question experience survey from the hospital’s own patients. The survey questions focus on patients’ perspectives of the care they receive in a hospital, ranging from cleanliness and noise levels in patient rooms, to factors such as provider communication and responsiveness to patients’ needs. The measures also include whether a patient would recommend the hospital to friends or family, as well as their overall rating of the hospital.

Access a complete list of the award recipients.

View Healthgrades hospital quality methodologies.

Learn more about how hospitals partner with Healthgrades.

¹ https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/maps/reference/us_regdiv.pdf

² Statistics are calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology which is based primarily on AHRQ technical specifications (Version 2020.0.1) to MedPAR data for years 2017 through 2019 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.

About Healthgrades:

At Healthgrades, we help millions of consumers find and connect with the right doctor, right hospital, and right care. Healthgrades.com is the leading marketplace connecting patients and providers. We make healthcare more accessible and transparent for consumers by differentiating providers on the basis of patient satisfaction, physician experience and hospital outcomes. Our Healthgrades Platform division works with the nation’s leading health systems to improve patient engagement and strengthen physician alignment, driving measurable financial outcomes. Hg Mercury is a comprehensive data and software as a services platform that delivers insights and communications solutions which drive patient engagement and physician alignment and integrate seamlessly with the health system’s broader MarTech stack and enterprise ecosystem. At Healthgrades, better health gets a head start.

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