Piedmont Fayette named among America’s 100 Best hospitals in 4 categories

Piedmont Fayette Hospital is the only hospital in Georgia to receive the America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Coronary Intervention, Stroke Care, Pulmonary Care and Critical Care Awards, according to a national study by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for information about physicians and hospitals.

Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 32 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions using Medicare data, and outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer data provided by 15 states.

Piedmont Fayette takes a multidisciplinary approach to process improvement, and many significant changes and improvements started in the hospital’s emergency department. The collaboration between the cardiology department, county emergency services and Piedmont Fayette’s emergency department has led to earning the American College of Cardiology’s NCDR Chest Pain  _  MI Registry Platinum Performance Achievement Award for six consecutive years. Many of those same best practices have also been used to provide superior stroke care. The stroke team earned the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get with The Guidelines Stroke Gold Plus with Target Stroke Honor Roll Elite Plus Quality Achievement Award. The emergency department and the hospital’s critical care department collaborated on several quality process improvement projects that led to greater efficiencies between the two departments and eventually throughout the hospital.

“Each of these awards serves as a tremendous example of the incredible teamwork on display throughout the hospital,” said Stephen Porter, CEO of Piedmont Fayette. “I believe it also shows that members of our community are getting the greatest care when they are in the greatest need.”

These achievements are part of findings released today in the Healthgrades 2020 Report to the Nation. The new report demonstrates the importance of hospital quality to both hospital leaders and consumers. Additionally, from 2016 through 2018, patients treated at hospitals receiving the America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Coronary Intervention Award have, on average, a 47.5 percent lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award.

In 2019, Piedmont Fayette Hospital was also recognized as One of America’s 50 Best Hospitals for a 5th consecutive year (2015-2019).

“As consumers navigate their health, it is important to consider a number of factors, including hospital quality, before deciding where to access care,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “Healthgrades’ America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Coronary Intervention, Stroke Care, Pulmonary Care and Critical Care recognizes those hospitals that have proven their dedication to quality care and exceptional outcomes over time and we applaud their efforts and achievement.”

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide to assess hospital performance in 32 common conditions and procedures, and evaluated outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer data provided by 15 states. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5-star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3-star (not statistically different from expected) and 1-star (statistically significantly worse than expected) categories. View the full list of Specialty Excellence AwardTM recipients here. The complete Healthgrades 2020 Report to the Nation and detailed study methodology, can be found at https://partners.healthgrades.com/healthgrades-quality-solutions/healthgrades-quality-awards/.

Statistics in the story above are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2016 through 2018 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only. — Story by Michael Boylan, Piedmont Fayette Hospital.