Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Receives Healthgrades 2018 Patient Safety Excellence Award™

Grass Valley, CA – October 30, 2018 – Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital announced today it is a recipient of the Healthgrades 2018 Patient Safety Excellence Award™, a designation that recognizes superior performance of hospitals that have prevented the occurrence of serious, potentially avoidable complications for patients during hospital stays. The distinction places Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital among the top 10 percent of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data for its excellent performance as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.

During the 2014 to 2016 study period, Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award were, on average:

• 55.6 percent less likely to experience an accidental cut, puncture, perforation or hemorrhage during medical care, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals
• 52.4 percent 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
• 62.8 percent less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals
• 54.3 percent less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital, than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals1

During the study period (2014 to 2016), Healthgrades 2018 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospitals demonstrated excellent performance in safety provided for patients in the Medicare population, as measured by objective outcomes (risk-adjusted patient safety indicator rates) for 13 patient safety indicators defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). If all hospitals achieved the average performance of award recipients for each of the 13 Patient Safety Indicators evaluated, during the 2014 to 2016 study period, 126,342 patient safety events could have been avoided.

“We are thrilled to receive the patient safety excellence award,” said Katherine Medeiros, president of Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital. “Our top priority is to provide high quality care to our patients every day and I am grateful to our dedicated team of physicians, nurses and staff who deserve the credit for this prestigious honor.”

“We applaud the hospitals who have received the Healthgrades 2018 Patient Safety Excellence Award,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “Their dedication and commitment to providing safe care creates tangible results for patients.”

Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital was also recognize for the following clinical achievements:

• The Healthgrades 2019 Pulmonary Care Excellence Award™ and was named among the top 10% in the nation for overall pulmonary services in 2019.
• Five-Star Recipient for Treatment of Pneumonia for eight years in a row (2012-2019)
• Five-Star Recipient for Treatment of Respiratory Failure for two years in a row (2018-2019)
• Five-Star Recipient for Treatment of Sepsis in 2019

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for almost 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide to assess hospital performance in 32 common conditions and procedures, and evaluated outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer data provided by 15 states and the District of Columbia. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as five-star (statistically significantly better than expected), three-star (not statistically different from expected) and one-star (statistically significantly worse than expected) categories. The complete Healthgrades 2019 Report to the Nation and detailed study methodology can be found at www.healthgrades.com/quality/.

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About Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital

Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital (SNMH) is a 104-bed acute care hospital located in Grass Valley, CA, providing compassionate, quality health care to residents and visitors of western Nevada County since 1958. Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital delivers a comprehensive range of health care services including inpatient and outpatient surgical services, family birth center/labor and delivery, emergency services, cancer care, and cardiology services. The not-for-profit hospital is an affiliate of the nationally recognized Dignity Health system, linking patients to important regional resources such as the Dignity Health Heart & Vascular Institute of Greater Sacramento, the Dignity Health Neurological Institute and the Dignity Health Cancer Institute. For more information, visit Dignityhealth.org/Sacramento.

1 Statistics are based on Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology, which is primarily constructed using AHRQ Technical Specifications version 5E applied to MedPAR data for years 2014 through 2016 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.