MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center Named Top 10 Percent in Nation for Joint Replacement, Receives National Excellence Award by Healthgrades

LONG BEACH, Calif., Dec. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center is among the top 10 percent in the nation for joint replacement and a recipient of an Excellence Award, according to new research released by Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems. Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 31 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions.*

Healthgrades Specialty Excellence Awards recognize hospitals with superior performance in specific specialty service lines and focus areas. Long Beach Medical Center was one of the first to invest in advances in joint replacement technology over the years, such as the Mako robotic-assisted surgery for hip and knee replacement and ExactechGPS® technology for shoulder surgery in the region. Long Beach Medical Center focuses on advanced treatment options to improve outcomes and patient satisfaction.

"We're proud to be recognized nationally for excellence in joint replacement surgery," says Andrew Wassef, M.D., medical director, MemorialCare Joint Replacement Center, Long Beach Medical Center. "Our Joint Replacement Center physicians and care team are committed to constantly improving clinical outcomes, even though we surpass national benchmarks, with a focus on patient-centric values and care. We know our patients want to get back to their homes quicker and their life faster – we work to make sure we achieve just that as safely as possible."  

In addition, Long Beach Medical Center is 5-star rated for total knee replacement, total hip replacement, back surgery, pacemaker procedures, and treatment of sepsis and pancreatitis. Healthgrades analysis shows that patients treated at hospitals receiving 5-star rating have a lower risk of mortality and experiencing one or more complications during a hospital stay than if they were treated at a hospital with a 1-star rating.

"Long Beach Medical Center has proudly served our community with quality, compassionate health care for more than 100 years," says Ike Mmeje, chief operating officer, Long Beach Medical Center. "The latest Healthgrades achievements reflect our quality and safety metrics in an ongoing effort to improve our patient and family experience and is a testament to the hard work and dedication by our physicians and clinical teams." 

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide to assess hospital performance in 31 common conditions and procedures and evaluated outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer data provided by 16 states. 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 5-star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3-star (not statistically different from expected), and 1-star (statistically significantly worse than expected).

About MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center  
MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center has been providing the community with compassionate, quality health care for more than 100 years. While leading in specialized care, research and education, Long Beach Medical Center uses the most advanced health care technologies – it is the only hospital in L.A. County with the innovative ExactechGPS® and ExcelsiusGPS® surgical systems. Long Beach Medical Center is ranked no. 7 in the Los Angeles Metro Area by U.S. News & World Report and has earned Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence. With leading centers for cancer, heart, rehabilitation, orthopedics, neurology and trauma, physicians and surrounding hospitals continually refer to its accredited programs. For more information, visit memorialcare.org/LongBeach.

* Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2018 through 2020 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only. For appendectomy and bariatric surgery, Healthgrades used inpatient data from 16 states that provide all-payer data for years 2017 through 2019. Due to the highly variable impact of the pandemic on hospital outcomes, Healthgrades made the decision to exclude cases with a COVID-19 diagnosis from the 2020 data in order to preserve the statistical integrity of our models and fairly evaluate clinical outcomes at all hospitals. To view the complete methodology, please visit: https://www.healthgrades.com/quality/ratings-awards/methodology

SOURCE MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center