NEWPORT NEWS, VA (December 4,2007) - The quality of hospital-based care in America is improving, but the gap between top-performing and poor-performing hospitals persists according to a study released by HealthGrades, which identifies Mary Immaculate Hospital as being ranked among the top 10% in the nation for orthopedic surgery.  In addition, Mary Immaculate received a five-star rating for joint replacement surgery, total knee replacement and hip fracture repair.  HealthGrades is the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings company.

The study, which documents a significant variation in care quality between the highest-performing hospitals and all others, also found that if all hospitals performed at the level of hospitals rated with five stars by HealthGrades, 266,604 Medicare lives could have potentially been saved over the three years studied.

“Our research shows that while the overall quality of hospital care in America is improving, the gap between the best-performing hospitals and the worst persists,” said Dr. Samantha Collier, HealthGrades’ chief medical officer and author of the study. “This persistent gap makes it imperative that anyone planning to be admitted to a hospital do their homework and seek out highly rated facilities.”

“We are very pleased to receive this recognition,” said Anthony Carter, MD, department of surgery chair, Mary Immaculate Hospital. “This is a reflection of the orthopedic surgery team’s commitment to build an orthopedic center of excellence and provide exceptional care to our patients.” 

For avid golfer Joyce Brown, spinal surgery performed by Dr. Jeffery Moore at Mary Immaculate, was the difference between living in pain and living it up.  “Sitting, standing, everything hurt,” recounts Brown. “I’m back to my golf game, feeling great and playing better than ever.  In fact, my handicap went from 18 down to 12 and I was recently awarded 2007 Player of the Year by the Williamsburg National Ladies Golf Association.”       

The Tenth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study identifies key trends in the quality of care provided by approximately 5,000 hospitals nationwide. HealthGrades researchers analyzed Medicare discharges from every U.S. hospital between 2004 and 2006. Risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates were calculated and hospitals were assigned a 1-star (poor), 3-star (as expected), or 5-star (best) quality rating for 28 diagnoses and procedures from heart failure to hip replacement to pneumonia. Individual hospital quality results from this study are available at www.healthgrades.com.

Among the study’s key findings:

• Gaps persist between the “best” and the “worst” hospitals across all procedures and conditions studied. Five-star rated hospitals had significantly lower risk-adjusted mortality across all three years studied.

• Across all procedures and conditions studied, there was an approximate 71 percent lower chance of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to a 1-star rated hospital.

• Across all procedures and conditions studied, there was an approximate 52 percent lower chance of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to the U.S. hospital average.