CDH Earns Healthgrades 2015 Patient Safety Excellence Award

NORTHAMPTON — Cooley Dickinson Hospital achieved the Healthgrades 2015 Patient Safety Excellence Award, a designation that honors hospital performance in the prevention of serious, potentially preventable complications during hospital stays. The distinction places Cooley Dickinson among the top 10{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of hospitals in the nation for its performance as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.

Cooley Dickinson ranked in the top 10{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} across 13 safety measures, including death rate among surgical inpatients with serious treatable complications and pressure-ulcer (bed-sore) rates from 2011 through 2013.

On average, 133,896 patient-safety events could have been avoided if all hospitals, as a group from 2011 from 2013, performed similarly to hospitals performing better than expected on each of 13 patient-safety indicators evaluated by Healthgrades.

In addition, during this study period, patients treated in hospitals receiving the Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award were, to cite just one example, 43.9{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} less likely, on average, to experience an accidental puncture or laceration during a procedure than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.

“Cooley Dickinson is fortunate to have a community of staff and providers who make delivering quality and safe care their daily priority,” said CDH President and CEO Joanne Marqusee. “Our commitment to patient safety is a multi-pronged approach that involves skilled employees and dedicated leaders who make safe systems and teamwork a priority. We are gratified to see that our commitment to safe practices and a culture of safety is being recognized by this national patient-safety organization. We also know the best organizations are those that are never satisfied, and we will continue to look for opportunities to improve.”

Added Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mark Novotny, “we are committed to serving our community with a team approach to improving care and minimizing risk of harm.”

Meanwhile, Healthgrades Chief Strategy Officer Evan Marks noted that “the Healthgrades 2015 Patient Safety Excellence Award reflects an organization-wide commitment to delivering high-quality care and to protecting patients from potentially preventable complications.”

For more information about Healthgrades, to download a full copy of the report, or to receive information about hospital and physician quality, visit www.healthgrades.com/quality.