St. Elizabeth, Mercy Hospitals Earn National Kudos

By Larry Avila, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, Wis.

Feb. 22–APPLETON — Sometimes just doing a good job day in and day out can pay off.

Affinity’s St. Elizabeth Hospital was presented Thursday with a plaque for its 2007 ranking among the top 1 percent of acute care hospitals nationally. Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh also received the designation.

Affinity learned of the award in October. A representative from Premier, which spearheaded the Premier CareScience Select Practice National Quality Award, gave the plaque to Dan Neufelder, Affinity president and CEO, and Travis Anderson, president of St. Elizabeth Hospital.

“The award recognizes the day-to-day work we do to make sure patients are at the center of our decision-making process and that we’re delivering care in the most cost-efficient way possible,” Anderson said.

Affinity did not apply for the award. Selection was based on Medicare Provider Analysis and Review or MEDPAR data from 2005.

Premier is a hospital performance improvement alliance with 1,700 participating not-for-profit hospitals and health systems serving communities nationwide, based in Charlotte, N.C.

Christine Kawiecki, a representative for Premier, said many health systems are seeking ways to streamline operations.

“It’s the way the industry is moving,” she said. “Since St. Elizabeth Hospital and Mercy Medical Center achieved this, it speaks to how efficiently they’re using resources and at the same time how they’re delivering a high level of quality care. A lot of folks aren’t there yet.”

The Affinity Health System hospitals were two of 49 nationally, the top 1 percent of acute inpatient facilities, to receive the award.

There are roughly 4,700 acute care inpatient facilities in the nation eligible for receive the award.

Affinity has said that Mercy and St. Elizabeth achieved superior performance in care of patients. Select Practice data includes 16 different risk indicators, which is calculated by combining the outcome deviations for mortality, morbidity and complications into a single quality measure for each facility. The combined quality and efficiency ratings are used to determine award recipients.

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