OSF Saint Anthony’s honored as one of best emergency care hospitals
From Illinois Business Journal news services
ALTON — Emergency Services at OSF Saint Anthony’s Health Center has been named a recipient of the Women’s Choice Award as one of America’s Best Hospitals for Emergency Care.
The honor puts the hospital in the top 1 percent for emergency care out of the 3,800 emergency rooms reporting.
Only 373 emergency rooms – less than 10 percent – met the criteria to qualify for the Women’s Choice Award.
OSF Saint Anthony’s Health Center ranked No. 1 in the nation with a perfect score in Emergency Care.
“The Mission Partners at OSF Saint Anthony’s Health Center strive to provide exceptional patient care – every day to every patient,” said Ajay Pathak, president and CEO. “This award recognizes the commitment of those very dedicated Mission Partners and physicians working in Emergency Services. We are honored that women recognize and trust our Emergency Services for their emergency care needs.”
Emergency services in the United States account for more than 125 million hospital visits annually and all clinicians must have expertise in caring for patients across their life span.
Unlike other hospital departments that interact with the same patient and families for an extended period, ES staffs typically have one patient encounter, often when anxiety and fear is at its peak, hospital officials said.
“Awarded Emergency Services Departments must achieve high rankings on eight emergency measures including patient recommendation scores, which is unlike any other health care credential recognizing providers today,” said Sharyn S. Lee, president of the WCA Healthcare Division.
The eight measures that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services publicly reports relate primarily to the amount of time taken in the ER such as time for diagnosis, medication, and admission to the hospital, and are weighted according to the priorities of women surveyed.
Of those eight measures, women rate “door to diagnostic time” or in other words, “door to doctor,” as the most important criteria when selecting an emergency room. The least important reported measure is the percentage of patients who left the emergency department before being seen.
A hospital can be eliminated from the award if they fall outside the 25th percentile for two or more of the eight measures, depending on their importance. The award is also limited to those hospitals with a solid recommendation on Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems.
