West Valley Medical Center has received a fourth consecutive Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Excellence AwardTM. This distinction places West Valley among the top 10% of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems.
“Now more than ever our community needs to feel safe and secure in our facility. This award further illustrates our committed focus on safety. We have established enhanced protections at West Valley as a result of COVID–19, in order to ensure an even safer environment for everyone who walks through our doors. We are currently screening all who enter the building, patients known to have COVID–19 are kept separate, and everyone is instructed to wear a mask while continuing to social distance. We are also consistently evaluating these process,” said Betsy Hunsicker, West Valley Medical Center Chief Executive Officer.
Aside from COVID-19 enhanced precautions, West Valley has implemented many initiatives to improve quality and enhance patient satisfaction. These include: An aggressive process for early identification and treatment of severe infections proven to improve outcomes; a commitment to patient engagement by introducing patients to their care team and sharing information at bedside during shift changes and department transfers; and a daily safety huddle as well as a weekly quality meetings to review day-to-day activities regarding current needs of patients and staff.
During the study period (2016 through 2018), Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospitals demonstrated excellent performance in safeguarding patients in the Medicare population, as measured by objective outcomes--risk-adjusted patient safety indicator (PSI) rates--for 13 PSIs defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). A 14th PSI included in the evaluation is Foreign Objects Left in Body During a Surgery or Procedure which is a “never” event and does not have an expected rate.
Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award were, on average*:
- 48.3% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest, than patients treated at non–recipient hospitals.
- 54.4% less likely to experience a hip fracture following surgery, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
- 66.8% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
- 63% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital, than patients treated at non–recipient hospitals.
In addition, if all hospitals in the country performed at the level of award recipients for each of the 13 patient safety indicators, 110,864 patient safety events could have been avoided.*
“Consumers might not know that information around patient safety is readily available and should be considered when researching healthcare options,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “We commend the recipients of the 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award for their dedication to providing excellent care for their patients.”
View Healthgrades hospital quality methodologies.
*Statistics are calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology which is based primarily on AHRQ technical specifications (Version 5e and 2018) to MedPAR data for years 2015 through 2017 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.