BMC Honored by Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare for Quality Initiatives

PITTSFIELD — For the fifth year in a row, Berkshire Medical Center has been named to the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Hospital Honor Roll for the continuing success of its quality-improvement initiatives. The Hospital Honor Roll recognizes hospitals whose performance is among the top 25{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of hospitals measured nationally on a set of composite quality metrics.

The quality metrics are based on Hospital Quality Alliance measures, as reported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Hospital Compare, and Leapfrog patient-safety measures. Hospital Compare measures how well hospitals care for patients with certain medical conditions or surgical procedures, with results from a survey of patients about the quality of care they received during a recent hospital stay. Leapfrog is a national coalition of business leaders and major health care purchasers formed in 2000 to promote increased safety during inpatient care.

To determine the 2011 Harvard Pilgrim Hospital Honor Roll, Harvard Pilgrim examined how hospitals performed on Process of Care categories, including cardiac care, pneumonia, hospital-acquired conditions and surgeries, patient-satisfaction scores, and Leapfrog patient-safety or hospital-acquired-conditions rankings.