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Capital Health Recipient of the Stroke Care Excellence Award™ for 3 Years in Row
Trenton, NJ – Stroke care at Capital Health’s– Fuld hospital has been ranked in the top 5 percent in the nation by a new study released by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. Based on this study, Capital Health is a recipient of the HealthGrades Stroke Care Excellence Award™ for the third year in a row. In addition, the hospital’s stroke care program received the highest five-star rating from HealthGrades.
“This recognition reflects our hospital’s commitment to provide the best stroke care available,” said Al Maghazehe, President and CEO, Capital Health. “With ongoing investments and a dedicated, experienced team, patients can expect the highest quality of stroke care when they come to Capital Health. I want to recognize the important efforts of our team. Their tireless dedication to ensure that patients have access to the kind of care they need when faced with a stroke is the reason we are able to achieve such a designation.”
Capital Health’s Fuld hospital is a state designated Comprehensive Stroke Center which establishes it as a leader in providing advanced care for patients suffering from stroke. It has also received certification from the Joint Commission – the gold standard for stroke care. Earlier this year, Capital Health announced the opening of the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center of New Jersey at Capital Health, which gave the hospital an even greater ability to treat the most critical cerebrovascular patients utilizing the most advanced technologies and treatments. More than 20 team members joined the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center from Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience including Dr. Erol Veznedaroglu and Dr. Kenneth Liebman as part of an experienced team committed to the care of the most complex stroke and cerebrovascular cases.
“Earlier this year when Capital Health opened the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center of New Jersey it signaled an ongoing commitment to stroke care,” said Dr. Erol Veznedaroglu, Director of Neurosciences and Endovascular and Cerebrovascular Neurosurgery at Capital Health. “The outstanding team approach and commitment to quality care at Capital Health clearly benefits patients who are sent to us for the specialized care needed to treat the most complex cases.”
“This designation is the result of a lot of hard work by a tremendously dedicated team. They deserve special recognition for all they do to provide care that places Capital Health in a position of being among the top 5 percent in the nation,” said Dr. James Ware, Medical Director of the Stroke Program at Capital Health.
The HealthGrades study, the largest annual report of its kind, analyzed patient outcomes in nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records from 5,000 hospitals over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. Among the findings related to inhospital complications in this year’s study are:
· Across all procedures in which complications were studied, there was a 79.69 percent lower chance of experiencing one or more inhospital complications in a 5-star rated hospital compared to a 1-star rated hospital.
· Across all procedures studied, there was a 61.22 percent lower chance of experiencing one or more inhospital complications in a 5-star rated hospital compared to the U.S. hospital average.
· If all hospitals performed at the level of a 5-star rated hospital, 110,687 orthopedic inhospital complications may have been avoided among Medicare patients over the three years studied.
The new 2010 HealthGrades hospital ratings are available at www.healthgrades.com, HealthGrades’ public Web site.
HealthGrades Ratings
HealthGrades’ hospital ratings and awards reflect the track record of patient outcomes at hospitals in the form of mortality and complication rates. HealthGrades rates hospitals independently based on data that hospitals submit to the federal government. No hospital can opt in or out of being rated, and no hospital pays to be rated.
For 28 procedures and treatments, HealthGrades issues star ratings that reflect the mortality and complication rates for each category of care. Hospitals receiving a 5-star rating have mortality or complication rates that are below the national average, to a statistically significant degree. A 3-star rating means the hospital performs as expected. One-star ratings indicate the hospital’s mortality or complication rates in that procedure or treatment are statistically higher than average. Because the risk profiles of patient populations at hospitals are not alike, HealthGrades risk-adjusts the data to allow for apples-to-apples comparisons.
More information on HealthGrades’ study, including the complete methodology, can be found at www.healthgrades.com.
About Capital Health
Capital Health is the region’s leader in advanced medicine, with significant investments in advanced technologies and experienced physicians. Comprised of its Mercer and Fuld hospitals in Trenton, N.J. and the Capital Health in Hamilton outpatient facility, Capital Health has twice received Magnet recognition for nursing excellence. Capital Health is a growing healthcare organization with construction underway for a new, state-of-the-art hospital in Hopewell Township, N.J. and significant expansion of services at its Fuld hospital in Trenton, both scheduled to be completed by 2011.
Capital Health’s commitment to making the latest technology available to patients in this region is headlined by the area’s only CyberKnife® Robotic Surgery System and the first da Vinci® Surgical System in Mercer County which are used respectively for non-invasive and minimally invasive surgical treatments. As a state designated Comprehensive Stroke Center, Capital Health is also home to the Stroke and Cerebrovascular Center of New Jersey featuring two of the country’s most experienced neurosurgeons. Capital Health has the region’s only trauma center and state designated regional perinatal center, and operates the mobile intensive care unit and psychiatric emergency screening center serving all of Mercer County. To learn more visit www.capitalhealth.org
