20 Oct 5 Star Recipient Carotid Surgery 2016
NATIONAL STUDY: KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER IS A HEALTHGRADES FIVE-STAR RECIPIENT FOR CAROTID SURGERY SURGERY
Andover, KS (October 20, 2015) – Kansas Medical Center today announced that it has received 5 stars for the quality of its Carotid Surgery care from Healthgrades, the leading online resource helping consumers make informed decisions in order to find the right doctor, the right hospital, and the right care. This achievement is part of new findings and data released today on Healthgrades.com and in the Healthgrades 2016 Report to the Nation. Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 33 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions.
The new report demonstrates how clinical performance continues to differ dramatically between hospitals both nationally and regionally. This variation in care has a significant impact on health outcomes. For example, from 2012 through 2014, if all hospitals as a group, performed similarly to hospitals receiving 5 stars as a group, on average 222,392 lives could potentially have been saved and 166,086 complications could potentially have been avoided.* A 5-star rating indicates that Kansas Medical Center’s clinical outcomes are statistically significantly better than expected when treating the condition or performing the procedure being evaluated.
“The Healthgrades 2016 Report to the Nation reveals striking disparities in quality at the local level, and underscores why it is vital for consumers to understand outcomes performance at alternative hospitals for specific conditions and procedures,” said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer for Healthgrades. “Hospitals with superior outcomes for certain aspects of care may not perform as well in other areas. Moreover, a major metropolitan area may have many hospitals, but only a few may provide better-than-expected outcomes for the specific care a patient needs. Those hospitals that have achieved the Healthgrades distinction have demonstrated a commitment to exceptional quality care.”
For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 40 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide, and assessed hospital performance relative to each of 33 common conditions and procedures. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5 star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3 star (not statistically different from expected), and 1 star (statistically significantly worse than expected) categories. The complete Healthgrades 2016 Report to the Nation with detailed cohort-specific outcomes data, hospital-specific quality achievements, and detailed study methodology, can be found at www.healthgrades.com/quality.
*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2012 through 2014 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.