WILMINGTON, N.C. – New Hanover Regional Medical Center Orthopedic Hospital has received five stars for the 12th year in a row for the quality of its total knee replacement care from Healthgrades, one of the leading online resources for helping consumers find the right doctor, the right hospital and the right care. This achievement is part of the findings and data on Healthgrades.com and in the Healthgrades 2015 Report to the Nation. Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 33 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions.
The new report demonstrates how clinical performance continues to differ dramatically between hospitals and the impact that this variation may have on health outcomes and organizational costs. According to Healthgrades, from 2011-2013, if all hospitals as a group, performed similarly to hospitals receiving five stars as a group, on average 228,426 lives could potentially have been saved and 169,298 complications could potentially have been avoided.
The NHRMC Orthopedic Hospital is dedicated to the specialty of orthopedics, and the Healthgrades five-star rating for total knee replacement surgery 12 years in a row shows our commitment to quality and the contributions of our physicians and hospital staff members in making this designation possible,” said Donna Bost, NHRMC vice president of specialty hospitals and support services.
A five-star rating indicates that NHRMC Orthopedic Hospital’s clinical outcomes are better than expected when treating the condition or conducting the procedure being evaluated.
To reach a five-star rating, NHRMC Orthopedic Hospital has partnered with physicians to create a surgical home program that focuses on creating the highest quality outcomes and best satisfaction results for our patients,” said Grant Rush, orthopedic service line director.
The NHRMC Orthopedic Hospital is a dedicated hospital with a single focus and is part of the award-winning New Hanover Regional Medical Center system. NHRMC Orthopedic Hospital is the largest orthopedic program in eastern North Carolina and has been named a Blue Distinction Center+ in knee and hip replacements by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. The hospital has 25 board-certified or board-eligible surgeons, many of whom are fellowship trained, and perform more than 2,000 joint replacement and 8,000 orthopedic procedures each year.
The Healthgrades analysis shows that not all hospitals perform equally in all procedures, so it is important that consumers do their homework when selecting a hospital,” said Evan Marks, chief strategy officer at Healthgrades. “Those hospitals that have achieved the Healthgrades distinction have demonstrated a commitment to exceptional clinical quality care.
For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 40 million Medicare-patient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide, assessing hospital performance relative to each of 33 common conditions and procedures. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as five-star (statistically better than expected), three-star (statistically as expected) and one-star (statistically worse than expected) categories. Detailed performance information, such as cohort-specific outcomes data and quality achievements, as well as more information on the Healthgrades 2015 Report to the Nation, including the complete methodology, can be found at www.healthgrades.com/quality.
*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2011 through 2013 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.