Mercy Medical Group honored in 2016 excellence Awards

The Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) recently awarded Thomas McIlraith, MD, SFHM, CLHM, Chairman of the Department of Hospital Medicine for Mercy Medical Group, a service of Dignity Health Medical Foundation (MMG) with 'Outstanding Service in Hospital Medicine' for his exemplary contributions to hospital medicine and dedication to improving patient care.

As part of SHM’s Awards of Excellence, these awards honor best practices in hospital medicine in areas of quality improvement, research, teaching, and teamwork. This is the first time a hospitalist from the Sacramento region has received this distinction.

'I am honored and humbled to be named in this award. It really represents the amazing group of physicians and staff that we have and what that team has done to be worthy of national recognition,” said Dr. McIlraith. “I am very proud we are the first group from Sacramento to receive this top award.”

Under Dr. McIlraith’s leadership, the hospitalist team size and the patient volume has quintupled. They also implemented a number of operational and quality initiatives dedicated to delivering high-quality, compassionate patient care. These include unit-based rounding, rapid response development, and patient continuity systems.

The MMG Hospital Medicine department currently provides nearly 90 hospitalists in support of Dignity Health’s four Sacramento-area hospitals, including Mercy General Hospital, Mercy San Juan Medical Center, Mercy Hospital of Folsom, and Methodist Hospital of Sacramento.

“Every day, Mercy Medical Group hospitalists are providing high quality, compassionate care to hospital patients,” said Greg Cooper, DPM, MBA, CEO of Mercy Medical Group, Inc. “This award reflects the extraordinary work of Dr. McIlraith and our hospital medicine physicians and staff, who are providing better care to patients, which is what they deserve.”

SHM will celebrate the winners of its annual Awards of Excellence at Hospital Medicine 2016 in San Diego, California on March 8, 2016.

Read more about SHM’s Awards of Excellence.

ABOUT SHM

Representing the fastest growing specialty in modern healthcare, the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) is the leading medical society for more than 44,000 hospitalists and their patients. SHM is dedicated to promoting the highest quality care for all hospitalized patients and overall excellence in the practice of hospital medicine through quality improvement, education, advocacy and research. Over the past decade, studies have shown that hospitalists can contribute to decreased patient lengths of stay, reductions in hospital costs and readmission rates, and increased patient satisfaction.

About Dignity Health Medical Foundation d/b/a Mercy Medical Group, a Service of Dignity Health Medical Foundation

Mercy Medical Group, a service of Dignity Health Medical Foundation, is a multi-specialty clinic with patient service centers located throughout the greater Sacramento area. It includes more than 400 medical providers and 900 Dignity Health employees providing services to thousands of patients in the Sacramento area and its affiliated local Dignity Health hospitals (Mercy General Hospital, Mercy San Juan Medical Center, Mercy Hospital of Folsom and Methodist Hospital of Sacramento). Dignity Health Medical Foundation has 26 patient care center locations in Sacramento.