Press Release

10/14/2009
For Immediate Release

#1 in Indiana for Orthopaedic Care

Orthopaedic care at Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center has been ranked #1 in Indiana and in the top 5% in the nation in a new study released by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. The HealthGrades study evaluates objective patient outcomes in the nation's 5,000 hospitals.

SJRMC is recognized with the Orthopedic Surgery Excellence Award for the 6th consecutive year, and with the Joint Replacement Excellence Award for the 4th consecutive year.

"Quality patient care is our top priority," said Nancy R. Hellyer, SJRMC CEO. "Recognition from an objective, independent source such as HealthGrades validates the efforts our physicians, nurses, and staff deliver to the people of Michiana everyday."

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 http://www.healthgrades.com/, HealthGrades' public Web site.