St. Mary’s Health Center has been named a national 2011 Summit Award winner and one of the nation’s top performers in clinical quality by Press Ganey, an organization that gauges more than 10,000 health care facilities for quality.

The Summit Award recognizes top-performing facilities that sustain the highest level of quality performance for three consecutive years. St. Mary’s is one of only 11 organizations in the nation to receive this award for achieving and sustaining excellence in core measures performance. The Summit Award is the industry’s most coveted symbol of quality achievement.

“St. Mary’s innovative approach to improving clinical processes and outcomes helps to advance the quality of health care in mid-Missouri,” said Robert Draughon, Press Ganey chief executive officer.

St. Mary’s is ranked in the top 1 percent of hospitals in the nation for quality, based on data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as well as the number one hospital in Missouri for quality measures as reported by HealthInsight.