St. Mary's Health Care System has been recognized as the only hospital in Georgia to receive Healthgrades excellence awards for stroke care and gastrointestinal care for seven years in a row (2012-2018), according to this year’s evaluation from Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.

St. Mary's is named among the top 10 percent of hospitals in America for treatment of stroke and overall GI services, and has been in the top 10 percent of both specialties for seven years in a row (2012-2018).  St. Mary's also is the only hospital in Georgia to receive Healthgrades 5-star rating, the highest available, in total knee replacement surgery for 14 years in a row (2005-2018).

In addition to the knee replacement 5-star rating, St. Mary's received Healthgrades 5-star ratings for coronary interventional procedures (balloon angioplasty and stent implantation), colorectal surgeries, and treatment of heart attack, heart failure, hip fracture, stroke, COPD, and GI bleeds.

"Receiving high quality ratings for patient outcomes is the result of tremendous commitment and dedication from our medical staff, clinical staff, non-clinical staff, leadership and Board of Directors," said Don McKenna, St. Mary's President and CEO. "Ratings like these demonstrate that our patients can have confidence that St. Mary's provides state-of-the-art care for them and their loved ones."

“Consumers place high value on information about hospital quality and use it to evaluate their choices for care,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “Hospitals that have achieved recognition for their quality outcomes prove their commitment to their patients and their community at large.”

Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 34 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated in three categories: 5-star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3-star (not statistically different from expected) and 1-star (statistically significantly worse than expected).

St. Mary's achievements are part of findings released today by Healthgrades and are featured in their 2018 Report to the Nation. The new report demonstrates how clinical performance continues to differ dramatically between hospitals regionally and nationally.

Variation in care has a significant impact on health outcomes. For example, Healthgrades reports that, from 2014-16, patients treated for stroke in hospitals with 5-stars for 30-day mortality have, on average, a 46.7 percent lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals with a 1-star rating.  These statistics are based on Healthgrades' analysis of MedPAR data for 2014-2016 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.

McKenna pointed to cardiac services as an area where St. Mary's focus on continual improvement has had a major impact. The system has successfully recruited board-certified cardiologists, built a cutting-edge cardiac catheterization and electrophysiology laboratory, enhanced its cardiac inpatient nursing services, added a dedicated heart failure coordinator, and created policies and procedures that speed patients with likely heart attacks directly to the right level of care.

The result is that St. Mary's has been named a Certified Chest Pain Center by the American College of Cardiology, has achieved 5-star ratings from Healthgrades for heart failure care for 6 years in a row (2013-2018), and now has also received 5-star ratings for coronary intervention procedures and treatment of heart attack.

"That kind of excellence doesn't just happen," McKenna said. "Five-star excellence is the product of continual process improvement across all levels of our ministry. I am very proud of what St. Mary's is doing to continually improve quality of care in the communities we serve."

Similarly, St. Mary's 14-year history of 5-star ratings for total knee replacement reflects dedication to quality both in and out of the hospital, McKenna said.

"Providing outstanding outcomes in total knee replacement requires collaboration between our orthopedic medical staff, surgical staff, nursing staff, rehabilitative services staff and home health care staff," he said. "It truly highlights the importance of the continuum of care St. Mary's offers inside our walls and when patients transition to another setting."

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide to assess hospital performance in 34 common conditions and procedures, and evaluate outcomes using all-payer data provided by 17 states. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Statistics are based on Healthgrades' analysis of MedPAR data for years 2014 through 2016 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.