Kankakee, IL., April 7, 2009 - The nation’s leading source for healthcare quality information announced that Provena St. Mary’s Hospital is a recipient of the 2009 HealthGrades® Patient Safety Excellence Award™ for the second year in a row. The prestigious designation ranks Provena St. Mary’s Hospital in the top five percent of healthcare providers across the nation for patient safety.

For the past six years, HealthGrades has identified the best-performing hospitals in order to establish benchmarks against which other providers can be evaluated and to identify trends in important patient safety issues. HealthGrades uses the federal government’s Medicare data to review and to rate more than 5,000 hospitals nationwide in its research.

“This award confirms the tremendous value that Provena St. Mary’s Hospital provides for the health and well-being of the families in our community,” noted Michael Arno, President and CEO. “The fact that Provena St. Mary’s Hospital is rated among the top Hospitals in the state and in the nation provides everyone with the assurance of access to top-quality healthcare right here in our community. This award reinforces our ultimate goal – the right care for the right patient at the right time – all of the time.”

He continued, “in conjunction with national Doctor’s Day, it is appropriate the superb physicians on staff at Provena St. Mary’s Hospital have earned a national designation as one of America’s safest hospitals.”

Provena St. Mary’s Hospital is one of only 14 hospitals in Illinois to receive this distinction in 2009 and one of only 10 hospitals in Illinois to receive this distinction two years in a row. The HealthGrades evaluation includes virtually every hospital in the country with the exception of military and veteran’s administration medical centers.

To determine which hospitals are to be recognized for outstanding patient safety, HealthGrades conducts independent analyses that examine 12 individual Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) of potentially preventable incidents. The indicators were developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and range from infection to post-operative hip fracture to failure to rescue.

Amy Lafine RN, MSN, chief nurse for clinical operations shares “for promotion of safe patient outcomes we have utilized input from our patients, medical staff and employees to establish high quality standards. A recent example of this would be our designation as a Nationally Accredited Chest Pain Center. We have developed immediate intervention expertise to assess heart problems quickly and accurately from the critical early stages of an acute coronary event through diagnosis and recommended treatment –– a minute-by-minute coordinated process that can save lives.”

Arno emphasized “These achievements of distinction are due to the dedicated and consistent professional expertise of the physicians, nurses, and staff at Provena St. Mary’s Hospital. Their skills and leadership ensure the quality care, unmatched performance, and significant outcomes that have distinguished our hospital every day for more than 111 years. At Provena St. Mary’s Hospital, patient safety has been and always will be about putting the patient first.”

For more information visit http://www.provena.org/stmarys/homepage.cfm?id=1