HARLINGEN — Harlingen Medical Center is among the winners of the Healthgrades 2017 Patient Safety Excellence awards, a recognition of top hospital performance in care and preventing complications during patient hospital stays.
The local hospital is one of 58 Texas hospitals to be recognized for a commitment to patient safety. Also receiving the excellence award from Healthgrades was Valley Regional Medical Center in Brownsville.
Nationwide, only about 500 hospitals received the award from Healthgrades for care protocols that minimized complications which can occur during hospital stays.
“I am very proud of our physicians, nurses and support staff that helped make this recognition possible,” said Brenda Ivory, president and CEO at Harlingen Medical Center. “Their commitment to constantly promoting the highest standards of quality and safety is truly what is behind this accolade. I am very pleased with their well-deserved recognition.”
In a separate hospital ratings system released yesterday, Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades rated Harlingen Medical Center and Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen highly with both facilities winning B grades when it comes to patient safety.
The Leapfrog grades use similar criteria in determining how effective hospitals are in minimizing errors, injuries, accidents and infections.
The recognition of HMC by Healthgrades puts it among the top 10 percent of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades, an analytics firm which compiles comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.
On average, 134,568 patient safety events could have been avoided if all hospitals, as a group from 2013 to 2015, performed similarly to hospitals at or above the levels required for the Healthgrades patient safety awards.
California-based Prime Healthcare operates 44 acute-care hospitals and employs more than 43,500 people in 14 states.
During the 2013-2015 study period, the hospital analytics firm Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals which received the Patient Safety Excellence Award were on average:
40.0 percent less likely to experience an accidental puncture or laceration during a procedure than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
44.6 percent less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
54.4 percent less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
50.2 percent less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
More than 1,000 people a day are estimated
to die from preventable hospital errors, making this the
third-leading cause of death in America.
*Winning Healthgrades hospitals here
https://www.healthgrades.com/quality/patient-safety-excellence-award-recipients-2017
* Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades here
http://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/
