Portsmouth, VA (April 17, 2008) – Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center announced today that it has been named a 2008 Distinguished Hospital for Patient SafetyTM, as part of an independent study by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading healthcare ratings company.

This distinction reflects Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center’s performance among the top five percent nationally for patient safety outcomes, according to HealthGrades fifth annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study, the largest of its kind.  Bon Secours Maryview is one of only 249 hospitals out of nearly 5,000 to receive this recognition. 

“Delivering high quality, compassionate care is at the core of Bon Secours Maryview’s mission,” said Susan A. MacLeod, executive vice president/administrator for Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center.   “This designation is an affirmation of our commitment to our mission and to providing care in the safest manner possible.  I am very proud of the entire Bon Secours Maryview team because this level of care is only possible when everyone is always committed to excellence.” 

HealthGrades' analysis of 41 million Medicare patient records found that patients treated at top-performing hospitals had, on average, a 43-percent lower chance of experiencing one or more medical errors compared to the poorest-performing hospitals. If all U.S. hospitals had performed at the level of HealthGrades 2008 Distinguished Hospitals for Patient Safety™, approximately 220,106 patient safety incidents and 37,214 Medicare deaths could have been avoided while saving the U.S. approximately $2.0 billion during 2004 to 2006.

“Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center is among those hospitals leading the way to reduce these costly errors and improve patient care in America,” said Dr. Samantha Collier, HealthGrades' chief medical officer and the primary author of the study. "HealthGrades commends Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center for its commitment to ensuring patients receive the safest-possible medical care. It is imperative that the benchmarks set by those hospitals that have successfully reduced medical errors be shared and adopted industry-wide.”

The fifth annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study applies methodology developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to identify the incident rates of 13 patient safety indicators among Medicare patients at virtually all of the nation's nearly 5,000 nonfederal hospitals. Additionally, HealthGrades applied its methodology to identify the best-performing hospitals, or Distinguished Hospitals for Patient Safety™, which represent the top five percent of all U.S. hospitals.

Ratings for individual hospitals were posted today to HealthGrades' consumer Web site,

www.healthgrades.com.

The following are the 13 patient-safety incidents used to identify HealthGrades Distinguished Hospitals for Patient Safety™:

• Death in low-mortality DRGs
• Decubitus ulcer
• Failure to rescue
• Foreign body left in during procedure
• Iatrogenic pneumothorax
• Selected infections due to medical care
• Post-operative hemorrhage or hematoma
• Post-operative hip fracture
• Post-operative physiologic metabolic derangement
• Post-operative pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis
• Post-operative respiratory failure
• Post-operative sepsis
• Post-operative abdominal wound dehiscence

The full study is available at www.healthgrades.com.