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West Valley City Journal

Jordan Valley Medical Centers Awarded for Patient Safety

May 05, 2016 04:59PM ● By Bryan Scott

By Rachel Hall | [email protected]

West Valley - Jordan Valley Medical Center and Jordan Valley Medical Center — West Valley Campus were recently honored with the 2016 Women’s Choice Award, ranking as two of America’s Best Hospitals for Patient Safety.

“This is another proud moment for our excellent staff at both hospitals,” Steven Anderson, CEO of Jordan Valley Medical Center and Jordan Valley Medical Center — West Valley Campus, said in a press release. “Every day, I witness, firsthand, the amount of dedication, compassion and thoughtfulness our teams provide to each patient in our care. Patient safety and trust are fundamental qualities to strive for in a health-care setting, and recognition like this only pushes our efforts forward.” 

The two medical centers were part of the list of 472 award winners that represent hospitals that have exceptional performance according to evidence-based data.

“Women and their families can choose Jordan Valley with the confidence to know that their family will be safe at that hospital,” CEO of Women’s Choice Award Delia Passi said.

Empowering women with the education and tools they need to make smart health-care choices is the mission of the Women’s Choice Award (WCA) organization according to Passi, who called women the chief medical officers of their households.

“We focus on women, because women make up to 94 percent of health-care choices,” Passi said. “Women say patient safety is their number one fear [when choosing health care].”

Patient safety is defined as surgical complications and infection rates for this specific award, according to Passi. Hospitals who have won the Women’s Choice Award are ranked by 11 criteria reported to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Each institution has a low incidence of complications or problems arising from surgical errors and infections.

The data-driven awards are based on the following 11 measures: deaths among patients with serious treatable complications after surgery, collapsed lung due to medical treatment, serious blood clots after surgery, a wound that splits open after surgery on the abdomen or pelvis, accidental cuts and tears from medical treatment, serious complications, central line–associated blood stream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, surgical site infection from colon surgery, blood stream infections and intestinal infections, according to the WCA website.

Hospitals are eliminated from consideration for awards if they do not report on at least four of the surgical complication measures or four of the infection measures, if they have a patient recommendation rating in the bottom 25 percent nationally, do not implement safe surgery checklists or receive a CMS rating of “Worse than the U.S. National Rate” for any of the measures, also according to the WCA website.

“Our methodology is objective and fact based,” Passi said. “We are the only organization that does not separate clinical care from the patient experience.” 

Patient experience includes measures such as ease of communication with doctors and nurses and a willingness for patients to highly recommend the hospital.

“Receiving this award is such an honor,” Dr. Mark May, medical staff president, said in a press release. “In my position, I have the privilege to personally witness the interactions between my staff and their patients. Our patients rely on us to provide the best care and support possible, so this award serves as motivation to continue our work every day.”

Passi hopes that providing reliable data-driven recognition to hospitals will allow patients to be more proactive in choosing their health-care services.

“Find first the hospitals and the doctors that will provide you with the level of care you want and then choose insurance,” Passi said. “In health care, you may not have a second chance. If you have to choose a hospital, you want to choose a hospital with the highest level of patient safety.”

For more information about the medical centers, visit jordanvalleymc.com or jordanvalleywest.com.