MountainStar Hospitals Deliver Excellent Care to Women

Two MountainStar hospitals in Utah achieved national recognition for achieving excellence in women’s healthcare. Healthgrades recognized Ogden Regional Medical Center with the 2012 Maternity Care Excellence Award for the 10th year in a row (2003-2012). St. Mark’s Hospital earned the 2012 Women’s Health Excellence Award for the third consecutive year.

“I’m honored that two MountainStar hospitals have again been recognized by Healthgrades for providing exceptional services to women,” noted John Hanshaw, CEO, MountainStar Healthcare. “This outstanding recognition truly belongs to the physicians, nurses and support staff at Ogden Regional and St. Mark’s, who are deeply committed to consistently delivering the best care to women in their communities.”

Healthgrades is a leading provider of information to help consumers make an informed decision about a physician or hospital. It released the national 2012 Trends in Women’s Health in American Hospitals study on June 19, 2012.

As a result of study findings, St. Mark’s Hospital is one of 176 hospitals out of 4,783 acute care hospitals nationwide to earn the Women’s Health Excellence Award. It recognizes the experienced caregivers at the Salt Lake City hospital that help women to safely undergo joint replacements, diminish or eliminate pulmonary and vascular conditions, or survive a heart attack or stroke. This award places St. Mark’s among the top five percent of hospitals across the United States.

“In our study, Healthgrades noted the rate of surgical intervention for women suffering a heart attack has increased over the years. This is good news, especially for patients who choose care at hospitals that are top performers in women’s healthcare,” said Divya Cantor, MD, MBA, Healthgrades senior physician consultant and the study’s author. “Our goal is to provide current, independent data on clinical outcomes to help prospective patients make informed decisions about their providers while also identifying hospitals that are setting national benchmarks to which other hospitals can aspire.”

Ogden Regional Medical Center was among 224 hospitals in the United States recognized with the Maternity Care Excellence Award, out of the nearly 5,000 hospitals included in this year’s Healthgrades study. It is among the top 10 percent in the nation for delivering award-winning maternity care.

“As women become more likely to seek medical attention based on public reporting outcomes, this level of detail in reduction of complications will be most important,” said Cantor. “Which hospital an expectant mom chooses to have her baby can result in lifelong consequences for both her and her baby. Physicians and all care givers are able to use this data as impetus for improving their quality outcomes.”

To identify top performing hospitals in women’s health, the Healthgrades study examined hospitalization records from the MedPAR database in all 50 states for the years 2008 through 2010. Key findings from this year’s report on women’s health include:

• If all of the nation’s hospitals had patient outcomes among women at the level of the nation’s top performers, 39,450 women could have potentially survived their hospitalization and 19,062 women could have potentially avoided a major in-hospital complication.
• On average, women’s mortality rates were 42 percent lower at high performing hospitals that achieved excellence awards than the poorest performers across nine diagnoses and procedures. Complication rates averaged 14 percent lower across seven procedures.

The 176 hospitals that achieved Women’s Health Excellence Awards were evaluated on the following:

• Heart attack, congestive heart failure, stroke, coronary bypass surgery, valve replacement, coronary interventional procedures, and carotid surgery
• Pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral vascular bypass, and  resection/replacement of abdominal aorta
• Total knee and hip replacement surgeries, spinal surgeries, and hip fracture repair

To identify top performing hospitals in maternity care, the Healthgrades study used three years of data, (2008 through 2010) from 19 states where hospital patient outcomes data are publicly available. Key findings from this year’s report on maternity care include:

• C-section rates stabilized for the first time in eight years; holding steady at 33 percent since 2009. Utah is one of two states in the country maintaining the lowest rates.
• Hospitals that received the Healthgrades 5-star rating had 62 percent fewer complications during childbirth compared to hospitals rated as lower-performing facilities.

The 224 hospitals that received Maternity Care Excellence Awards were evaluated on the following:

• Vaginal delivery maternal complications for single live deliveries
• C-section delivery maternal complication rates for single live deliveries
• Overall volume and volume of low birth-weight deliveries
• Risk-adjusted infant mortality rates for single live deliveries