Union Hospital hits national spotlight for quality and safety
August 9, 2012
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Readers of two national publications will find Union Hospitals name mentioned among the nations top performing hospitals for clinical quality and patient safety. In their August editions, both U.S. News and World Report and Consumer Reports magazines have ranked Union Hospital among the nations leaders for outstanding clinical care and patient safety.
Were well along in the evolution of health care as a consumer-driven industry, according to Carey Gardner, director of community relations. In recent years, both the federal government and the private sector have collected and published information to help guide patients as they choose their doctors, hospitals, and other health care services.
U.S. News and World Report annually publishes its Best Hospitals rankings after reviewing a huge volume of patient data from the nations 5,000 hospitals. The publication ranks the nations hospitals in 16 major specialties, bestowing the Best award on 720 hospitals that meet or exceed performance standards in one or more of those specialties.
The U.S. News and World Report website gives a Best Award to Union Hospital in the specialty of pulmonary care, identifying the Dover hospital as high performing. The report, to be published in August, notes that patient survival is much better than expected and patient safety is superior.
The other national publication to mention Union Hospital is Consumer Reports. The magazine evaluated 1,159 of the nations hospitals for patient safety. The safety study focused on six categories, scoring hospitals for their patient infections, readmissions, communication with patients, use of CT scanning, complications, and mortality. Union Hospital scored 62, ranking it 16th in Ohio for patient safety. The top-ranked Ohio hospital scored 68.
Union Hospitals score of 62 would have put us at the top for patient safety in many other states, Gardner noted. Were lucky to live in Ohio where we have many excellent and safe hospitals.
Gardner said the findings published in the two magazines can serve as a second opinion, confirming the findings that resulted in HealthGrades Excellence Awards in recent years. HealthGrades ranked UH among the top five percent of all hospitals in 2012 for patient safety, emergency medicine, and pulmonary medicine, and ranked the hospital among the top 100 nationally for critical care.
Gardner credits the hospitals medical staff and professional employees for achieving top rankings in the nation in these independent evaluations of quality and safety.
Their skill, experience, and compassion for patients results in top-ranked care, a level of quality thats being noticed on a national level, Gardner said. Local residents should be pleased to know their community hospital offers some of the best clinical quality and safest care in the region, in Ohio, and in the entire nation.
