CHART-topping Sutter Health Affiliate Hospitals Recognized for Quality Excellence

News provided by

May 02, 2011, 02:15 ET

SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven hospitals affiliated with the Sutter Health network were recognized by the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Task Force (CHART) with a January 2011 "Certificate of Excellence."

A prestigious honor awarded bi-annually, only 36 hospitals across California received awards for key quality achievements in 50 categories. More than 240 hospitals across the state voluntarily submit data to CHART for review.

Recognized Sutter Health hospitals include:

Eden Medical Center, Castro Valley
Memorial Medical Center, Modesto
Mills-Peninsula Health Services, Burlingame
Novato Community Hospital, Novato
Sutter Davis Hospital, Davis
Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento
- Sutter General Hospital, Sacramento
- Sutter Memorial Hospital, Sacramento
Sutter Roseville Medical Center, Roseville

ABOUT CHART

CHART, a third-party consumer-reporting agency, was established in 2004 to develop a statewide hospital performance reporting system using a multi-stakeholder collaborative process. It presents the "Certificate of Excellence" to hospitals that achieve "above average" or "superior scores" in five of the eight CHART measurement areas; do not receive a "below average" or "poor" score on any measure, and report data for all measurements for which they qualify. These measures include patient satisfaction and experience in common reasons for admissions such as cardiac care, maternity services and treatment for pneumonia. The not-for-profit Sutter Health network has participated in the CHART process since its inception.

For detailed information on each hospital participating in CHART, visit www.CalHospitalCompare.org. Published by the California HealthCare Foundation. Consumers can search the online report card for quality information about hospitals by location, name or medical condition.

QUALITY AND AFFORDABILITY

The Sutter Health network embarked on a plan several years ago to deliver the highest quality care, with expanded patient access and competitive prices. Sutter Health's integrated approach has increased the quality of care provided by network physicians and hospitals and will continue to help make services more affordable for patients and their families.

Learn more about Sutter Health's commitment to affordability here: www.sutterhealth.org/about/healthcare_costs.html

QUOTES

Several years ago, the Sutter Health network embarked on a plan to deliver high quality, affordable health care that meets the unique needs of each individual patient in our network," said Gordon Hunt M.D., senior vice president and chief medical officer for Sutter Health. "For example, by creating greater consistency in medical care and adopting best-practice approaches in one clinical area – hospital-acquired infection prevention – we've prevented hundreds of infections, saved more than one thousand of lives and reduced costs for patients by tens of millions of dollars."

"Delivering high-quality, personal care as efficiently as possible will become even more important in the coming years as health care reform takes shape," added Dr. Hunt. "As health coverage is extended to 32 million uninsured Americans we expect that the government will help cover the costs by reducing reimbursement to health care providers. Over the next decade, Medicare will reduce reimbursement to Sutter Health by nearly $2 billion."

MULTIMEDIA

Audiocast | Dr. Hunt discusses Sutter Health's focus on quality (MP3)
Audiocast | Dr. Hunt explains how the report card helps patients (MP3)
Video | Watch patient stories about Sutter's quality

LINKS

CHART's report card | www.CalHospitalCompare.org
Improvements In Patient Safety and Quality | www.sutterhealth.org/quality
How Sutter Health Measures Up on Quality | www.sutterhealth.org/quality/reports

About Sutter Health

Serving patients and their families in more than 100 Northern California cities and towns, Sutter Health doctors, not-for-profit hospitals and other health care service providers share resources and expertise to advance health care quality and access. The Sutter Medical Network includes many of California's top-performing, highest quality physician organizations as measured annually by the Integrated Healthcare Association. Sutter-affiliated hospitals are regional leaders in cardiac care, women's and children's services, cancer care, orthopedics and advanced patient safety technology.

For more information about the not-for-profit Sutter Health network, please visit www.SutterHealth.org | www.Facebook.com/SutterHealth | www.YouTube.com/SutterHealth | www.Twitter.com/SutterHealth

SOURCE Sutter Health