Healthgrades names NCH a 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient

Northwest Community Healthcare (NCH) today announced that it has been recognized by Healthgrades as a 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient. This distinction places NCH among the top 5% of all short-term acute care hospitals as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading marketplace connecting patients and providers. NCH has received the Patient Safety Excellence Award for a third year in a row (2021-2023) and is Among the Top 10% of hospitals in the Nation for Patient Safety for a third year in a row (2021-2023).

"NCH has a deep commitment to patient safety," says Cheri Moore MSN, RN, CPHQ, NCH's Executive Director of Quality. "We have aligned efforts with other Illinois hospitals through the Midwest Alliance for Patient Safety adopting best practices for safe care delivery. All clinical and procedural areas conduct safety checks and time-out procedures for clear communication and knowledge sharing. NCH invests in technology to decrease human error in care delivery using barcode scanning for medication administration and lab collections. Most importantly, all team members and medical staff have a voice in safety every day through our safety event reporting system."

During the 2019-2021 study period, 164,592 potentially preventable patient safety events occurred among Medicare patients in U.S. hospitals.* Healthgrades found that just four patient safety indicators accounted for 74% of all patient safety events: Hip fracture due to an in-hospital fall, collapsed lung resulting from a procedure/surgery, pressure or bed sores acquired in the hospital and catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in-hospital. Healthgrades' analysis also revealed that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Healthgrades 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award were, on average:

• 61.4% less likely to experience an in-hospital fall resulting in hip fracture, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals*

• 52.7% less likely to experience a collapsed lung resulting from a procedure or surgery in or around the chest, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals*

• 66.1% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals*

• 67.3% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at nonrecipient hospitals*

When it comes to choosing healthcare, quality saves lives, which is why Healthgrades is committed to delivering the most scientifically accurate and comprehensive information about doctors and hospitals - with data insights not available anywhere else. To that end, it's important for consumers to know that if all hospitals, as a group, performed similarly to the 2023 Patient Safety Award recipients, on average, 95,880 patient safety events could have been avoided.*

"Through our 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Awards, we seek to recognize hospitals that excel in providing top-quality care for their patients while preventing serious injuries during hospital stays," said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer and head of Data Science, Healthgrades. "We are proud to name NCH as a 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient and look forward to their continued efforts to make patient safety a top priority."

Consumers can visit healthgrades.com for more information on how Healthgrades measures hospital quality and access the complete methodology at: www.healthgrades.com/quality/ratings-awards/method/healthgrades-patient-safety-methodology.

*Statistics are calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology which is based primarily on AHRQ technical specifications (Version 2022.0.1) for MedPAR data years 2019 through 2021 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.