Press Releases (2009)

Elkhart General Hospital Receives National Quality Award for Joint Replacement Care
October 13, 2009

ELKHART, IN  – Joint replacement care at Elkhart General Hospital has been ranked in the top 5% in the nation by a new study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. The HealthGrades study evaluates objective patient outcomes in the nation’s 5,000 hospitals.

2010 Clinical Achievements include:

“Quality of care is our top priority at Elkhart General,” said Gregory W. Lintjer, President of Elkhart General Hospital. “Providing our patients and families with the best care possible is inherent in our mission, vision and values. Being recognized by HealthGrades is an honor for our employees and physicians.”

The HealthGrades study, the largest annual report of its kind, analyzed patient outcomes in nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records from 5,000 hospitals over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. Among the findings related to inhospital complications in this year’s study are:

Across all procedures in which complications were studied, there was a 79.69% lower chance of experiencing one or more inhospital complications in a 5-star rated hospital compared to a 1-star rated hospital. 

Across all procedures studied, there was a 61.22% lower chance of experiencing one or more inhospital complications in a 5-star rated hospital compared to the U.S. hospital average.

If all hospitals performed at the level of a 5-star rated hospital, 110,687 orthopedic inhospital complications may have been avoided among Medicare patients over the three years studied.

The new 2010 HealthGrades hospital ratings were posted today at www.healthgrades.com, HealthGrades’ public Web site.

“Physician engagement and physician champions have been key to our quality improvement efforts,” said Jean Putnam, Director of Performance Improvement and Medical Staff. “Multidisciplinary hospital teams have focused their efforts on these service lines for several years concentrating on initiatives that would improve the quality of care.”

HealthGrades Ratings

HealthGrades’ hospital ratings and awards reflect the track record of patient outcomes at hospitals in the form of mortality and complication rates. HealthGrades rates hospitals independently based on data that hospitals submit to the federal government. No hospital can opt in or out of being rated, and no hospital pays to be rated.

For 28 procedures and treatments, HealthGrades issues star ratings that reflect the mortality and complication rates for each category of care. Hospitals receiving a 5-star rating have mortality or complication rates that are below the national average, to a statistically significant degree. A 3-star rating means the hospital performs as expected. One-star ratings indicate the hospital’s mortality or complication rates in that procedure or treatment are statistically higher than average. Because the risk profiles of patient populations at hospitals are not alike, HealthGrades risk-adjusts the data to allow for apples-to-apples comparisons.

More information on today’s HealthGrades study, including the complete methodology, can be found at www.healthgrades.com.