The Center for Rehabilitative Medicine at St. Mary's Health Care System has been ranked in the top 10 percent of 870 similar facilities across the United States, based on patient outcomes reported by the Uniform Data System for Medical Rehabilitation in 2017.

"We are extremely proud of the high quality care provided by our Center for Rehabilitative Medicine," said Montez Carter, St. Mary's President and CEO. "Being recognized in the top 10 percent reflects the passion, commitment and dedication of the professionals at every level of our center, from our medical director to our leadership team to our therapists, nurses, and everyone involved in the care of our patients."

St. Mary's Center for Rehabilitative Medicine, or CRM, provides intensive physical, occupational and speech-language therapy to help people recover from strokes, accidents, or other debilitating conditions. Patients receive at least three hours a day of therapy, six days a week, in an inpatient setting with 24/7 nursing and medical care.

"We do a tremendous job in helping patients regain their maximum level of function," said Ashely Cown, Director of Neurosciences, including St. Mary's CRM. "As the UDSMR report card shows, our measures are significantly better than national averages. That means we are able to discharge more of our patients to home, sooner and at a higher level of function, than 90 percent of similar centers across the U.S. I'm really proud of our people and the care we provide."

Cown pointed to three measures in particular:

• 5 percent of CRM patients return to home rather than a long term care facility or other institutional setting. The national average is 78 percent.

• The CRM's length-of-stay efficiency is 3.2 compared to the national average of 2.77, indicating that patients make functional improvement in less time.

• Because of that efficiency, the average length of stay is 11.7 days, compared to the national average of 13.2 days.

UDSMR is a division of UB Foundation Activities Inc., a not-for-profit corporation affiliated with the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. It uses national standards set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to create a report card for participating inpatient rehab facilities across the nation. The goal is to recognize high-performing facilities for delivery of care that is effective, efficient, timely, and patient-centered.

The 2017 rankings were determined using UDSMR's program evaluation model. The PEM accounts for each facility's case mix and patient severity to develop an overall performance score and ranking. The database includes nearly three-quarters of all inpatient rehab facilities in the country. The model allows for "apples-to-apples" comparisons of quality and outcomes.

"To recognize the efficient and effective care it provides to its patients, we are pleased to present this award to St. Marys' Center for Rehabilitative Medicine," said Troy Hillman, Manager of the Analytical Services Group at UDSMR. “Development of the PEM Report Card has served as a tool to identify and recognize high-performing facilities, to work with them to learn how they provide efficient and effective care, and to share what we learn with others to elevate the performance of all. We look forward to working with St. Mary's and the other top performing facilities to improve care in all inpatient rehabilitation facilities.”