Award winning care

Salem Hospital Five-Star Rated According to Study

According to the Tenth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study, Salem Hospital is five-star rated for cardiac, orthopedic and gastrointestinal services for 2008.

The study, the largest of its kind, analyzed patient outcomes at virtually all of the nation's 5,000 hospitals over the years 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Specifically, Salem Hospital top ratings are:

• Five-Star rated in GI surgery.
• Five-Star rated for cholecystectomy.
• 2008 Recipient of the HealthGrades Gastrointestinal Surgery Excellence Award ™.
• Ranked among the top 10 percent in the nation for GI surgery.
• 2007 Recipient of the HealthGrades Cardiac Surgery Excellence Award ™.
• Five-Star rated for coronary bypass surgery (2007 and 2008).
• Five-Star rated for coronary interventional procedures.
• Five-Star rated for treatment of heart attack.
• Five-Star rated for total-hip replacement.
• Five-Star rated for back and neck surgery (except spinal fusion).
• Five-Star rated for spine surgery.

"When people need healthcare, they want to know that they will receive quality care. This HealthGrades recognition reaffirms that our patients receive top-quality care at Salem Hospital," says Norm Gruber, president and CEO of Salem Hospital. "We are very proud of the physicians, nurses, technicians, and all the many employees who work diligently to provide quality care every day, and who made this recognition possible."

Patients admitted to the nation's top-performing hospitals, five-star hospitals like Salem Hospital, have, on average, a 71 percent lower chance of dying than those treated at one-star hospitals across 18 procedures and conditions analyzed, according to the study. HealthGrades is the nation's leading independent ratings company.

"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."

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 virtually 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.

Among the study's key findings:

• Oregon is one of the top fives states nationwide showing the most improvement in coronary interventional procedures.
• Gaps persist between the "best" and the "worst" hospitals across all procedures and conditions studied. Five-star rated hospitals, such as Salem Hospital had statistically 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.

The 2008 HealthGrades ratings for all hospitals nationwide are available, free of charge, on the organization's award-winning consumer Web site, located at http://www.healthgrades.com/. 

More than three million individuals and employees of some of the nation's largest employers and health plans visit HealthGrades each month to access quality information about hospitals, nursing homes and physicians.

HealthGrades also provides consumers and payers with detailed assessments of hospitals' patient-safety outcomes, based on indicators developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

About Salem Hospital
Salem Hospital Regional Health Services is one of the largest of Oregon's 57 acute care hospitals and operates the busiest emergency department in Oregon.

It is a not-for-profit hospital, licensed for 454 acute-care beds, and is guided by a 15-member volunteer Board of Trustees.

The hospital is the city's largest private employer, with approximately 3,500 full- and part-time employees. There are 465 physicians on the active medical staff, representing 46 different specialties, who admit patients to the hospital. More than 275 volunteers provide non-medical support for the hospital.