Dominican among Dignity Health Hospitals Recognized for Excellence

SAN FRANCISCO — Dignity Health’s Bay Area hospitals — Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City, and Saint Francis Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco – have each been recognized as a 2014 Top Performer on Key Quality Measures® by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States.

The hospitals were recognized as part of The Joint Commission’s 2015 annual report “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety,” for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance.

Specifically, the hospitals were recognized in the following areas:

• Dominican Hospital – Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia, Surgical Care, Venous Thromboembolism, Stroke
• Sequoia Hospital – Heart Attack, Pneumonia, Surgical Care, Perinatal Care
• Saint Francis Memorial Hospital – Heart Failure, Pneumonia, Surgical Care, Venous Thromboembolism, Immunization
• St. Mary’s Medical Center – Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia, Surgical Care, Stroke

These hospitals are among the 1,043 hospitals nationwide to achieve the 2014 Top Performer distinction, out of more than 3,300 eligible hospitals.

“Our hospitals have made it a top priority to improve positive patient outcomes through evidence-based care processes,” said Todd Strumwasser, MD, senior vice president of operations, Bay Area, and interim president of Saint Francis Memorial Hospital. “This Top Performer recognition shows that no matter which Dignity Health hospital they choose, patients in the Bay Area can feel confident that they are receiving the highest possible quality care.”

The Top Performer program recognizes hospitals for improving performance on evidence-based interventions that increase the chances of healthy outcomes for patients with certain conditions. The performance measures include heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma, inpatient psychiatric services, stroke, venous thromboembolism, perinatal care, immunization, tobacco treatment, and substance use.

To be a 2014 Top Performer, hospitals had to meet three performance criteria based on 2014 accountability measure data, including:

• Achieve cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures;
• Achieve performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure with at least 30 denominator cases; and
• Have at least one core measure set that had a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and within that measure set, achieve a performance rate of 95 percent or above on all applicable individual accountability measures.

For more information about the Top Performer program, visit www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.

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Dignity Health includes four accredited, not-for-profit hospitals in the Bay Area — Saint Francis Memorial Hospital (www.saintfrancismemorial.org) and St. Mary’s Medical Center in San Francisco (www.stmarysmedicalcenter.org), Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City (www.sequoiahospital.org), and Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz (www.dominicanhospital.org).

All four hospitals are Certified Stroke Centers, offer emergency services, and have received national recognition for superior safety and quality from Healthgrades, a leading provider of comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.