Saline hospital named tops

Congratulations, Saline hospital:

Saline Hospital Named One of the Nation's 100 Top Hospitals for the Third Year
SALINE, Mich. – (April 22, 2009) – For the third year in a row, St. Joseph Mercy Saline Hospital has been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care. The winning hospitals were announced in the March 30 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

The award recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in clinical outcomes, patient safety, patient satisfaction, financial performance, and operational efficiency.

“This is a prestigious award, with only 20 hospitals nation-wide named in the small community hospital category,” explains Kathleen Rhine, chief operating officer, St. Joseph Mercy Saline. “It’s an honor to be placed within the top 100 hospitals in the country, and we didn’t get here without the true dedication of our entire staff.”

The winners were identified through an in-depth analysis, the Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals®: National Benchmarks study. The study evaluated 3,000 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals in nine areas: mortality, medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, cash-to-debt ratio, patient satisfaction, and adherence to clinical standards of care.

“We know that achieving this level of excellence is a direct result of the remarkable people who work at our hospital, our team of great physicians, nurses, staff and volunteers,” says Barb Fielder, director of operations at St. Joseph Mercy Saline.

St. Mary Mercy Hospital Livonia, of Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, was also awarded the 100 Top Hospitals award in the large community hospital category. This is the third year for St. Mary Mercy to be named to this coveted list.

“The 100 Top Hospitals winners raised the bar again this year, delivering a higher level of reliable care and greater value for their communities,” said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Reuters.

If all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as Medicare patients treated in the winning hospitals:
• More than 107,500 additional patients would survive each year.
• Nearly 132,000 patient complications would be avoided annually.
• Expenses would decline by $5.9 billion a year.
• The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.
"St. Joseph Mercy Saline Hospital doctors and staff are dedicated to providing quality patient care. This award exactly demonstrates our commitment to providing consistent, high quality care to maintain patient safety, operational efficiency and national standards," concludes Dr. George Williams, chief of staff, St. Joseph Mercy Saline Hospital.
More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com.

About Saint Joseph Mercy Health System
Saint Joseph Mercy Health System (SJMHS) is a newly expanded health care organization serving southeast Michigan. Health coverage spans six counties, including Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne. It includes 537-bed St. Joseph Mercy in Ann Arbor, 443-bed St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac, 304-bed St. Mary Mercy in Livonia, 136-bed St. Joseph Mercy Livingston in Howell, 119-bed St. Joseph Mercy Port Huron and 74-bed St. Joseph Mercy Saline. Combined, the six hospitals are licensed for 1,613 beds, have five outpatient health centers, five urgent care facilities, more than 25 specialty centers; employ more than 13,000 individuals and have a medical staff of nearly 2,400 physicians.

A member of Trinity Health, the nation’s fourth largest Catholic health care organization, SJMHS is committed to providing a remarkable patient experience by using leading edge technology in a comforting and healing environment. As a mission based organization, Saint Joseph Mercy Health System hospitals provides approximately $100 million in community benefit to the communities it serves each year.

For more information on health services offered at Saint Joseph Mercy Health System, please visit www.sjmercyhealth.org.