It is the fourth consecutive year Tanner Ortho has been ranked first.
Tanner also earned HealthGrades’ Orthopedic Surgery Excellence five-star award for the sixth consecutive year, putting it in the top 5 percent in the nation for orthopedic care.
This recognition is part of new ratings released Wednesday in “American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2013: Healthgrades Report to the Nation.” The study evaluates about 4,500 hospitals nationwide on nearly 30 procedures and conditions. The five-star rating is the highest that can be achieved.
“This is the product of the hard work that has been done by our staff at all levels of our organization, as well as the skill and diligence of our medical staff,” said Loy Howard, president and CEO of Tanner Health System. “Ensuring successful outcomes is how we earn the trust of our patients. This gives our patients the assurance that, at Tanner, they’re going to get the best possible care.”
Tanner Ortho and Spine Center has earned five-star ratings with HealthGrades over the past six years, including:
• Overall orthopedic services for six years in a row (2008-2013).
• Joint replacement for five years in a row (2009-2013).
• Spine surgery for six years in a row (2008-2013).
• Total knee replacement for five years in a row (2009-2013).
• Total hip replacement for two years in a row (2012-2013).
• Hip fracture treatment for nine years in a row (2005-2013).
• Back and neck surgery (spinal fusion) for six years in a row (2008-2013).
“This type of award is difficult to win because they look at your performance over time and look at objective measurements,” said Dr. Greg Slappey, a Tanner medical staff member and president of Carrollton Orthopaedic Clinic. “They compare us with other hospitals throughout the country, looking at specific objective numbers.”
HealthGrades measures are based on data submitted to the federal government and no hospital pays for the rating, or can opt in or out of it. HealthGrades adjusts for patient demographic characteristics and clinical risk factors, thereby taking into account how sick patients are upon hospital admission. The service is free to the public and can be viewed at www.healthgrades.com.
Slappey praised the orthopedic staff and Tanner Health System for delivering a high level of care and service that people expect.
“We’ve been able to attract high quality orthopedic doctors here from across the country,” Slappey said. “They want to practice orthopedics with state of the art equipment and still live in a small town atmosphere like Carrollton.”
“This award signals to our area citizens that this has long been an outstanding service at Tanner and continues to be,” said Larry Steed, executive vice president and chief administrative operations officer for Tanner Health System. “It’s a tribute to the physicians who provide the care and the clinical team and therapists who support the physicians. With the attention that media gives health care, you have more of these rankings to keep consumers informed about the quality of health care in their area and this is an example.”
In its analysis, HealthGrades evaluated approximately 40 million Medicare hospitalization records for services performed from 2009 through 2011 at about 4,500 short-term, acute care hospitals nationwide. HealthGrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving five stars had, on average, 75 percent lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals receiving only one star.
In this year’s report, HealthGrades also analyzed findings over its last five study periods (2005-2011) to provide an overview of trends in hospital quality over a longer period. Among its key findings, HealthGrades found that the nation’s average in-hospital risk adjusted mortality rate improved 22 percent for procedures and conditions studied by HealthGrades during the last seven years.
These are not the first honors Tanner has won from HealthGrades. Both Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton and Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica were honored with HealthGrades’ Outstanding Patient Experience Award for 2011 and 2012. HealthGrades used data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAPS) — the first national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients’ perspectives of hospital care.
In addition, Tanner Health System was named one of the 15 Top Health Systems in the nation for 2012 by research firm Thomson Reuters. Recently, Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica and Higgins General Hospital in Bremen were also distinguished as Top Performers on Key Quality Measures by The Joint Commission and were included in the highest category of the Georgia Hospital Association’s quality honor roll.
Howard said Tanner has worked to lead the way in making information on quality measures, such as those monitored by HealthGrades, more accessible to patients with a website, www.TannerQuality.org, where people can review a number of charts and facts about key quality care indicators at Tanner.
“When people are researching hospitals and making educated decisions regarding their care, they’re going to find that Tanner compares exceptionally well with some of the top hospitals in the nation,” said Howard. “Our medical staff is first-rate, our facilities are great, our staff is going to treat you with compassion and respect and you’re going to experience fewer complications and fewer risks than you would at one-star facilities.”
Howard said Tanner also has cultivated deeper relationships with its medical staff to continue its focus on quality, including with Carrollton Orthopaedic Clinic, which deserves much of the credit for Tanner’s outstanding orthopedic scores.
“We are fortunate to have a practice like Carrollton Orthopaedic Clinic in our area that can attract and retain such skilled specialists,” he said “They have long done an outstanding job of helping us move forward with our orthopedic services, not just at Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton, but at Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica and Higgins General Hospital, as well.”
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