St. Johns' Hospitals Receive Healthgrades 2015 America's Best 100 Hospitals Awards

St. John's Regional Medical Center and St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital, part of Dignity Health, are proud to announce that each once again have received several Healthgrades 2015 America's 100 Best Hospitals Awardâ„¢.

The distinction places the St. John's Hospitals among the top 2 percent of more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide for its consistent, year-over-year superior clinical performance as measured by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. 

“This award is a testament of St. John’s Regional Medical Center’s and St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital’s commitment to the highest level of safe, quality health care services,” says Darren Lee, president and CEO for the two St. John’s hospitals. “Our patients expect this when they entrust their care to us, and our employees and physicians deliver on this pledge every day. We continue to invest in state-of-the-art technologies, education, and training that enables our employees to provide the highest quality of care available.”

America’s 100 Best Hospitals awards received are:

St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital

• America’s 100 Best for Stroke Care – two years in a row
• America’s 100 Best for Pulmonary Care – two years in a row
• America’s 100 Best for GI care – two years in a row
• America’s 100 Best for General Surgery
• America’s 100 for Critical Care

St. John’s Regional Medical Center

• America’s 100 Best Hospitals for overall quality care
• America’s 100 Best for Cardiac Care for three years in a row
• America’s 100 Best for Coronary Intervention

Our Dignity Health Central Coast hospitals, including St. John's Regional Medical Center and St. John's Pleasant Valley Hospital, together received 66 honors from Healthgrades for 2015, consisting of five-star awards for clinical outcomes and clinical and service excellence awards. A five-star rating indicates that a hospital’s clinical outcomes are better than expected when treating the condition or conducting the procedure being evaluated.

From 2011 through 2013, Healthgrades America’s 100 Best Hospitals Award™ recipients, as a group, had a 26.4% lower risk adjusted mortality rate across 19 procedures and conditions where in-hospital mortality was the clinical outcome, compared to all other hospitals. During this same period, if all other hospitals performed at the level of America’s 100 Best Hospitals Award™ recipients across these 19 procedures and conditions, 172,626 lives could potentially have been saved. For example, patients treated at a hospital that has achieved the America’s 100 Best Hospitals Award™ had, on average, a 29.3% lower risk of dying from heart failure than if treated at a hospital that did not receive the award.

Variation in hospital performance exists locally as well as nationally. For example, in the Los Angeles, Calif. region, there were 10 hospitals out of 25 eligible hospitals for the America’s 100 Best Hospitals Award™. St. John's Regional Medical Center is among the hospitals in the Los Angeles, Calif. region with some of the best quality care across at least 21 of 32 common inpatient conditions and procedures evaluated by Healthgrades over a period of at least 3 years.

“The Healthgrades analysis shows that not all hospitals perform equally, so it is important that consumers do their homework when selecting a hospital,” said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer, Healthgrades. “Those hospitals that have achieved the Healthgrades distinction have demonstrated a commitment to exceptional clinical quality care over an extended period of time.”

Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at over 4,500 hospitals nationwide, including for 33 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions. These findings are released on Healthgrades.com and in the Healthgrades 2015 Report to the Nation.

Healthgrades independently measures hospitals based on data that hospitals submit to the federal government. No hospital can opt in or out of the analysis, and no hospital pays to be measured. Healthgrades risk adjusts for patient demographic characteristics and clinical risk factors, thereby taking into account how sick patients are upon admission.