All three of Tanner’s inpatient acute and critical access hospitals have been named among the nation’s “Top Performers on Key Quality Measures” by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of healthcare organizations in America.
The acute care Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton and Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica, as well as the critical access Higgins General Hospital in Bremen, were among only 25 Georgia hospitals — 1,043 hospitals nationally — named to this year’s list of top performers by The Joint Commission out of more than 3,300 eligible hospitals.
Tanner Medical Center/Villa Rica and Higgins General Hospital earned the additional distinction of being recognized as top performers for all five years since the program’s inception — an honor shared by only two other hospitals in Georgia. Tanner Medical Center/Carrollton has earned the honor for a fourth year.
The rankings were announced in The Joint Commission’s 2015 annual report America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety.
The Joint Commission’s Top Performer on Key Quality Measures program recognizes hospitals for improving performance on evidence-based interventions that increase the chances of healthy outcomes for patients with certain conditions. The performance measures included in the recognition program include heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma, stroke, venous thromboembolism, perinatal care, immunization and more.
“Many hospitals know how to deliver effective care and provide for favorable outcomes, but Tanner’s emphasis is on doing that in every situation, every time, for every patient,” said Loy Howard, president and CEO for Tanner Health System. “Our medical staff and our patient care teams have access to the latest research and treatments, but the defining feature of our organization continues to be that our team members work together to ensure that patients receive the best possible care every single time.”
The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies nearly 21,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States. Accredited facilities submit to regular inspections from Joint Commission surveyors who independently verify facilities’ quality and adherence to best practices. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.
To be a 2014 Top Performer, hospitals had to meet three performance criteria based on 2014 accountability measure data: achieve cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures; achieve performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure with at least 30 denominator cases; and have at least one core measure set that had a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and within that measure set, achieve a performance rate of 95 percent or above on all applicable individual accountability measures.
“Delivering the right treatment in the right way at the right time is a cornerstone of high-quality health care,” said Mark Chassin, MD, MPH, president and CEO of The Joint Commission. “I commend Tanner’s efforts for their excellent performance on the use of evidence-based interventions.”
The Top Performer on Key Quality Measures distinction is the most recent for Tanner, which earlier this year was cited by Truven Health Analytics as among the 15 Top Health Systems in the nation for 2015 — the third time in four years that Tanner has earned that title.
“For most patients, the quality and safety of the care they receive is the most important aspect they consider in deciding where they will receive care,” said Howard. “By consistently providing high-quality, high-value, evidence-based care throughout our health system, we’re able to ensure that our patients are making an educated choice when they come to Tanner. It’s an honor to know that the work we’ve done for our patients has been recognized nationally once again by The Joint Commission.”
For more information on how Tanner compares to other hospitals in the region on national benchmarks for care, visit www.TannerQuality.org. To find a physician on Tanner’s medical staff or learn more about the health system’s services, visit www.tanner.org or call 770.214.CARE.
For more information about The Joint Commission’s Top Performer program, visit http://www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.