Cooley Dickinson Receives Gynecologic Excellence Award

NORTHAMPTON — Cooley Dickinson Hospital was named among the top 10{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of the hospitals evaluated as providing outstanding performance in gynecologic surgery, as measured by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.

Cooley Dickinson, Cape Cod Hospital, and Good Samaritan Medical Center were the only Massachusetts hospitals to receive the award. This is the third straight year Cooley Dickinson has received this recognition.

Gynecologic surgery includes surgery on the female reproductive system to treat benign tumors, cancer, infertility, incontinence, and various other conditions. Hysterectomy accounted for 75{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of all procedures evaluated.

To help consumers evaluate and compare hospital performance in gynecologic surgery, Healthgrades analyzed patient outcome data for all patients provided by 17 individual states for years 2010 through 2012. Healthgrades found that there is a significant variation in quality for gynecologic surgery.

From 2010 through 2012, patients treated in hospitals receiving five stars for gynecologic surgery have, on average, a 57{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} lower risk of experiencing complications than if they were treated in hospitals receiving one star. From 2010 through 2012, if all hospitals performed similarly to hospitals receiving five stars in gynecologic surgery, 17,760 in-hospital complications may have potentially been avoided.