One of only 13 in nation to receive “Highest Value Hospital” Designation
(Redding. CA), Dec. 22, 2008 – Mercy Medical Center Redding (MMCR)
received an early Christmas present from one of the country’s top
health-care quality rating organizations. MMCR has been named among the
nation’s best hospitals for delivering high quality care with the most
efficient use of resources by The Leapfrog Group in early December. The
organization designated MMCR as one of only 13 hospitals in the nation –
only one of two hospitals in California – as a “Highest Value Hospital”.
The Leapfrog Group is the first national quality organization to
evaluate and identify hospitals providing excellent quality and at the
same time demonstrating an appropriate use of resources for specific
procedures. Its designation is based on a year’s worth of data from more
than 1,200 hospitals that voluntarily submits data to Leapfrog.
“Consumers and purchasers are demanding both quality and cost
effectiveness from hospitals,” said MMCR President/CEO Rick Barnett.
“The Highest Value designation means that Mercy has been affirmed in the
collective work of our hospital and medical staff to deliver the right
amount of care at the right time to benefit our patients.”
Leapfrog is currently the only national organization asking hospitals
for efficiency information, according to Leah Binder, CEO of The
Leapfrog Group. “We believe it’s important to recognize not only good
outcomes, but hospitals that do so by avoiding unnecessary use of
resources. Quality and prudent resource use must go hand-in-hand if this
nation is ever going to fix its broken health care system,” she said.
All 13 hospitals were deemed “highest value” based on their efficiency
scores, which Leapfrog calculates by combining quality and resource
utilization scores, in four clinical areas: coronary artery bypass graft
(CABG), percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), treatment of acute
myocardial infarction (AMI), and pneumonia care. Hospitals had to have a
top efficiency of care score for at least three of these four procedures
and conditions. These conditions are the same core measures that
Medicare focuses on to monitor quality.
The other Highest Value Hospital in California is Desert Regional
Medical Center, in Palm Springs, California.
The Leapfrog Group (www.leapfroggroup.org) uses its members’ collective
leverage to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality,
and affordability of health care for Americans. The Leapfrog Group was
founded in November 2000 by the Business Roundtable and is supported by
its members, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund,
the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and other sources.
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Michael Burke
Interim Manager
Marketing and Community Relations
Mercy Medical Center
2175 Rosaline Ave.
Redding, CA 96001
(530) 225-6113 Office
(530) 242-5216 Fax
(530) 229-7144 Pager
mburke@chw.edu
redding.mercy.org
