St. Mary’s Health Center has been named one of the nation’s top performers in clinical quality measures today by The Joint Commission, the nation’s main accreditor of healthcare organizations. St. Mary’s is the only mid-Missouri hospital and one of only 405 hospitals nationwide to earn the distinction this year.

St. Mary’s was recognized based on evidence-based clinical processes shown to improve care for certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care and children’s asthma. Inclusion on the list is based on accountability measures reported to The Joint Commission during the previous calendar year.

“Safe care for our patients is the most important thing we do here at St. Mary’s,” says Brent VanConia, president of St. Mary’s. “We are committed to exceptional care and are honored to be added to this distinguished top-quality performers list by The Joint Commission.”

To be recognized as a top performer on key quality measures, an organization must meet two 95 percent thresholds. First, it must achieve a composite performance of 95 percent or above after the results of all the accountability measures for which they report data to The Joint Commission were factored into a single score. Second, they must meet or exceed a 95 percent performance benchmark for every accountability measure for which they report data, excluding any measures with less than 30 eligible cases or patients.

St. Mary’s was recognized as a top performer in four of the five categories, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care.

In addition to being included in The Joint Commission’s “Improving America’s Hospitals” annual report, St. Mary’s will also be recognized on The Joint Commission’s Quality Check website (www.qualitycheck.org).

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