Ingalls Recognized as one of Healthgrades America’s 50 Best for 2014

Ingalls Memorial Hospital is proud to be named among the nation’s 50 Best Hospitals by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. This impressive distinction places Ingalls in the top one percent of hospitals nationwide, out of more than 4,500 hospitals evaluated.

“Ingalls is proud to be recognized among the top one percent of U.S. hospitals for consistent quality care,” said Kurt Johnson, Ingalls President/CEO. “Our team has demonstrated a unique ability to sustain that performance year after year. It’s one more reason our patients can rest assured they are in the best hands when they come to Ingalls.”

The America’s Best designation highlights not only superior performance in risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complication rates, it focuses on the ongoing accomplishment of superior clinical outcomes across a broad spectrum of care. Healthgrades has analyzed this data for more than 15 years and has found that there are hospitals that repeatedly differentiate their performance from their peers. Ingalls is one of them.

“By choosing a hospital that has achieved the Healthgrades America’s 50 BestTM hospital award, consumers can expect a long-standing commitment to exceptional clinical care,” Johnson added. “But more often than not, we know consumers choose a hospital based on where their physicians go. If your doctor is affiliated with one of these high-performing hospitals, you can be confident knowing that you and your family will receive superior care. At Ingalls, we believe that’s what you deserve and nothing less.”

In addition, for the eighth year in a row, Ingalls has been named a recipient of the Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence. In all, Healthgrades cited Ingalls for excellence in 28 distinct clinical areas, including heart care, orthopedics, women’s health, gastrointestinal care, emergency medicine and more.

In 2013 alone, Ingalls made great strides in improving patient care by dramatically reducing emergency department wait times, lowering infection rates (Ingalls’ C-diff rate is among the lowest in the state), raising patient-satisfaction scores in virtually every category, and strengthening clinical services by undertaking a massive renovation of its cardiovascular services and adding new specialists to its medical staff.

“Ingalls places quality and patient safety at the center of every decision we make,” Johnson added. “These Healthgrades designations provide objective confirmation that we continue to offer exceptional quality, and that our patients can feel confident they are receiving superior healthcare close to home.”

Being in the top one percent means Ingalls patients are less likely to experience medical or surgical complications, and have the best chances for survival during and after hospitalization. In fact, according to Healthgrades, if all hospitals performed at the level of the award recipients, 157,069 lives could have potentially been saved nationwide between 2010 and 2012.

Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance for over 4,500 hospitals across the nation in 36 procedures and conditions annually based on Medicare inpatient data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) database. To learn more about how Healthgrades determines America's Best Hospitals Award recipients, please visit healthgrades.com/quality.