El Camino Hospital Named to Joint Commission “Top Performer” List for Quality Measures

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., October 30, 2013 – El Camino Hospital today was named one of the nation’s Top Performers on Key Quality Measures® for 2012 by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in America.   The hospital is one of 1,099 hospitals nationally that are being recognized, representing the top one-third of all Joint Commission-accredited hospitals reporting accountability measure performance data for 2012.

“We take great pride in having earned a position on this prestigious list through the hard work and dedication of our staff, who focus tirelessly on delivering the right evidence-based interventions in the right way at the right time to care for our patients,” said Tomi Ryba, president and chief executive offer of El Camino Hospital.

The Top Performer list is based on an aggregation of accountability measure data reported to The Joint Commission during the 2012 calendar year. The list of Top Performer organizations increased by 77 percent from last year and it represents 33 percent of all Joint Commission-accredited hospitals reporting accountability measure performance data for 2012. El Camino Hospital was specifically recognized for its achievement on the following sets: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care.

El Camino Hospital and each of the hospitals that were named as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures must: 1) achieve cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures; 2) achieve performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure where there are at least 30 denominator cases; and 3) have at least one core measure set that has a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and (within that measure set) all applicable individual accountability measures have a performance rate of 95 percent or above. A 95 percent score means a hospital provided an evidence-based practice 95 times out of 100 opportunities to provide the practice. Each accountability measure represents an evidence-based practice – for example, giving aspirin at arrival for heart attack patients, giving antibiotics one hour before surgery, and providing a home management plan of care for children with asthma.

“El Camino Hospital and all the Top Performer hospitals have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to quality improvement and they should be proud of their achievement,” says Mark R. Chassin, M.D., FACP, M.P.P., M.P.H., president and chief executive officer, The Joint Commission. “We have much to celebrate this year. Nearly half of our accredited hospitals have attained or nearly attained the Top Performer distinction. This truly shows that we are approaching a tipping point in hospital quality performance that will directly contribute to better health outcomes for patients.”

In addition to being included in today’s release of The Joint Commission’s “Improving America’s Hospitals” annual report, El Camino Hospital will be recognized on The Joint Commission’s Quality Check website (www.qualitycheck.org). The Top Performer program will be featured in the December issues of The Joint Commission Perspectives and The Source.

About El Camino Hospital

El Camino Hospital is an acute-care, 443-bed, nonprofit and locally governed organization with campuses in Mountain View and Los Gatos, Calif.  In addition to state-of-the-art emergency departments, key medical specialties include neuroscience, heart and vascular, cancer care, urology, orthopedic and spine, genomic medicine, and the only Women’s Hospital in Northern California.  The hospital is recognized as a national leader in the use of health information technology and wireless communications, and has been awarded the Gold Seal of Approval from The Joint Commission as a Primary Stroke Center as well as back-to-back ANCC Magnet Recognitions for Nursing Care.

To learn more, visit our website, find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or view our videos on YouTube. For a physician referral, visit our website or call the El Camino Health Line at 800-216-5556.

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