St. Elizabeth’s earns highest designation in heart bypass surgery and knee replacement and treating heart failure

Brighton, MA – June 8, 2015 – St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, a teaching affiliate of Tufts University School of Medicine, has been rated “high performing”, the highest designation which can be earned, in procedures, including heart bypass surgery and knee replacement, along with treating heart failure in the U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals for Common Care ratings. The ratings evaluate more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide on common inpatient procedures and conditions.

“We at St. Elizabeth’s are proud of our commitment and the quality of health care we provide our patients,” said Roger Mitty, MD, interim president, St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center. “We are honored by U.S. News & World Report’s acknowledgement in their first ever Common Care ranking. This focus on these common, but critically important, health care services, highlights St. Elizabeth’s excellence in treating all patients including the most routine illnesses. We remain committed to providing high quality care and continuing to earn our patients confidence through the delivery of exceptional health care.”

U.S. News evaluated hospitals in five procedures and medical conditions and rated them high performers, average or below average. Only about 10 percent of the hospitals were rated as high performers.

“The choice of hospital is one of the most important and costly decisions an individual makes,” said Ben Harder, chief of health analysis for U.S. News. “We evaluated the treatment of more than 3.6 million patients and identified a small percentage of hospitals that have superior outcomes compared with their peer institutions. Whenever possible, patients, in consultation with their doctors, should seek out high performing hospitals that excel in treating their specific condition.”

U.S. News created Best Hospitals for Common Care to help patients find better care for the kinds of common procedures and medical conditions that account for millions of hospitalizations each year. Objective outcome measures such as deaths, infections, readmissions, and operations that need to be repeated as well as patient satisfaction data largely determined the ratings. The Best Hospitals for Common Care ratings rely on Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data for patients 65 and older, as well as survey data from the American Hospital Association and clinical registry data from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

About St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center
St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center is a major academic medical center affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine.  Areas of medical excellence include vascular and endovascular surgery, cardiology, neurosciences, general and robotic surgery, bariatric surgery, women’s health, high-risk obstetrics, bone and joint health, hematology/oncology, pulmonary medicine and emergency medicine.  St. Elizabeth’s is a member of Steward Health Care, which is the second largest health care system in New England.  Visit St. Elizabeth’s online at www.semc.org