MEMPHIS, Tenn., Oct. 30, 2009 – HealthGrades, a national, independent health care ratings company, recently announced that Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis ranks among the top 5 percent in the nation for cardiac surgery, stroke, gastrointestinal, pulmonary and critical care.

HealthGrades also ranked the hospital in the top 10 percent in the nation for orthopedics, spine surgery and prostatectomy. The nation’s nearly 5,000 nonfederal hospitals were all included in the study, which examined mortality rates and complication rates from government data from 2006, 2007 and 2008.

As a result, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis received Specialty Excellence Awards™ in all services mentioned above, as well as five-star ratings in multiple diagnoses and procedures.

The findings were included in the 12th annual “HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study,” which analyzed nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records. Top-performing hospitals had dramatically lower mortality rates than other hospitals, according to the study. For the 17 procedures and diagnoses for which HealthGrades analyzed mortality rates, patients at top hospitals had a 72 percent lower chance of dying when compared with the lowest-performing hospitals, and a 52 percent lower chance of dying when compared to the U.S. national average.

Across all procedures in which complications were studied, there was a 79.69 percent lower chance of experiencing one or more in-hospital complications in a five-star rated hospital compared to a one-star rated hospital. If all hospitals performed at the level of a five-star rated hospital, 110,687 orthopedic in-hospital complications may have been avoided among Medicare patients over the three years studied.

HealthGrades rates hospitals independently based on data that hospitals submit to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. No hospital can opt in or opt out of being rated. Based on their studies, HealthGrades has made available its 2009 quality ratings for virtually every hospital in the country at www.healthgrades.com, a Web site designed to help individuals research and compare local health care providers.

The Baptist Memphis campus includes the 706-bed hospital that is the flagship of the Baptist Memorial Health Care system. It serves as a major referral center for patients from across the Mid-South and offers many diagnostic, surgical and rehabilitation services. The hospital has added hundreds of beds in the past few years, with the opening of a new patient tower and the Baptist Heart Institute. Consumers have rated Baptist Memphis their most preferred hospital for overall health care services in an independent National Research Corp. poll for the past 14 years in a row.

For more information, please call 901-226-5000 or visit memphis.baptistonline.org.

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