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Beebe Medical Center Receives HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence

01/26/10

"" Beebe Medical Center is one of only 269 hospitals ranked in the top five percent in the nation for overall patient outcomes in a new study issued today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. This accomplishment has led to Beebe Medical Center receiving the HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence Award".

This outstanding achievement is a credit to everyone at Beebe Medical Center, said Jeffrey M. Fried, President and CEO of Beebe Medical Center. It reflects the commitment and dedication of our Board, our physicians, our clinical staff and all employees who work to continually improve the quality and safety of the care that we bring to our community.

The award recognizes the attention to detail that has made our clinical outcomes among the best in the nation. We have instituted such life-saving protocols as the Rapid Response Team and just recently, we implemented a bar-coded medication administration program which along with our pharmacy robot automates the entire medication administration process, and greatly reduces the likelihood of medication errors occurring within our facility. Our Cardiac Surgery program, just three years old, is seeing strong results, with patients going home sooner than average and returning less often than the national average. Our cancer program has also received national recognition when in June 2009 it was named a recipient of the 2008 Commission on Cancer Outstanding Achievement Award for excellence. Tunnell Cancer Center is one of only 95 cancer programs across the nation to receive this recognition, and the only community hospital based cancer program in Delaware, to earn this prestigious award from the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer. These are just a few examples of the commitment to quality healthcare we see at Beebe Medical Center.

We take great pride in our collective efforts to continually identify opportunities for improvement, and for focusing on quality and on producing excellent results and outcomes for our patients.


All of us associated with Beebe Medical Center are very pleased to be recognized by HealthGrades with such a prestigious award, said Jan McCarty, Chair of the Beebe Medical Center Board of Directors. To be ranked among the top 5% of all hospitals nation-wide for all clinical programs is a tremendous honor; and it speaks well of the hard work, constant vigilance and dedication of our doctors, nurses, management, board and hospital employees.

Patient safety and quality outcomes are top-priority goals at Beebe. We take them very seriously, and we all work hard and very diligently to make them happen. It's very gratifying to have those efforts recognized nationally by HealthGrades."


The eighth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study analyzed 40 million hospitalization records from 5,000 hospitals over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. It showed that the hospitals like Beebe Medical Center in the top five percent had better patient outcomes and were improving their outcomes at a faster rate than other hospitals.

It has become a standard practice in the health care industry to evaluate and compare the quality of care at hospitals in terms of patient outcomes and the mortality and complication rates that patients experience.

Risk-adjusted mortality rates at Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence were 29 percent lower when compared to the other 95 percent of hospitals. In-hospital complication rates were 9 percent lower. In addition, these hospitals improved their mortality rates by an average of 14 percent, while the other 95 percent of hospitals improved by an average of 10 percent.

Our data show that only a select few hospitals achieve high-quality patient outcomes, not just in a few categories of care, but across the board and over time, said Rick May, MD, a vice president with HealthGrades and an author of the study. Patients in communities with a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence should feel proud of the hospital's accomplishments, and confident that the level of care there is among the very best in the nation.

Methodology
This is the eighth year that HealthGrades has independently analyzed the clinical quality performance of all non-federal hospitals across the country in 26 procedures and diagnoses. In the study, the company reviewed approximately 40 million hospitalization records from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. All hospitals that participate in the Medicare program were part of the independent study. Hospitals that receive the HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence are those hospitals that rank in the top five percent when all 26 individual scores are aggregated into an overall score.

HealthGrades also has ranked Beebe Medical Center number one in Delaware for overall orthopedics in 2010 and the only hospital in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia to receive 5-star ratings for all orthopedic procedures measured by HealthGrades.

Beebe Medical Center is committed to quality and safety. It's Tunnell Cancer Center has received national recognition for its quality standard of care. The award means that Tunnell Cancer Center not only meets the standards set down by the Commission on Cancer, but that we have exceeded them. Last summer, the Commission granted Tunnell Cancer Center a Three-Year Approval with Commendation. It was the second time in a row that Tunnell Cancer Center has gained the coveted Commendation designation, although Tunnell Cancer Center has consistently received approval from the Commission. In 2009 Tunnell Cancer Center also was recognized by The Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation for the professionalism of its nursing staff.

Beebe Medical Center focuses on continually improving its processes. Through the efforts of Chief of Surgery Michelle Thomas, MD, Beebe Medical Center is participating in the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, bringing a host of best practices and evidence-based initiatives to improve surgical care. Beebe Medical Center already has implemented digital mammography services and digital scoping technology for gastroenterology screenings and examinations. It is working closely with the physicians on the Medical Staff to develop a comprehensive electronic medical record system.

About Beebe Medical Center
Beebe Medical Center is a not-for-profit community medical center with a charitable mission to encourage healthy living, prevent illness, and restore optimal health with the people residing, working, or visiting in the communities we serve. It has 210 licensed beds and offers progressive and comprehensive medical care that includes an open-heart surgery program, which is an affiliation with Christiana Care Health System, cardiac intervention, cancer treatment, orthopedic surgery, women's health and emergency medicine. It also has numerous outpatient facilities in satellite locations around eastern Sussex County offering services including imaging and lab services and physical and occupational therapy, and a school of nursing adjacent to the main campus. More than 200 physicians who bring more than 30 medical specialties are members of the Medical Staff. For more information, please visit us online at www.beebemed.org

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Editor's note: A full copy of the study is available at http://www.healthgrades.com or by contacting Scott Shapiro at sshapiro@healthgrades.com.

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