Sparks Health, Washington Regional named 2013 Top Performer

Sparks Health System in Fort Smith and Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville have been recognized as a “2013 Top Performer on Key Quality Measures” by The Joint Commission, the nation’s leading accreditor of health care organizations.

Washington Regional was recognized as part of The Joint Commission’s 2014 annual report, “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety,” for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance for: Heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and surgical care.
 
Washington Regional is one of 1,224 hospitals in the United States, and one of 16 in Arkansas, to achieve the 2013 Top Performer distinction. The Top Performer program recognizes hospitals for improving performance on evidence-based interventions that increase the chances of healthy outcomes for patients with certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma, stroke, venous thromboembolism and perinatal care, as well as for inpatient psychiatric services and immunizations.
 
This is the second time in three years Washington Regional has been recognized as a Top Performer. The hospital also was recognized as a Top Performer for 2010 for the heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care measure sets.

“We are honored to be recognized again by The Joint Commission as a Top Performer,” Bill Bradley, Washington Regional president and CEO, said in a statement. “This achievement reflects the dedication that our entire hospital staff has to providing patient-centered, evidence-based care.”

Sparks was recognized for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance for Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia, and Surgical Care. Sparks is one of only 16 hospitals in the state named a Top Performer in 2013. Sparks is one of just 314 hospitals across the country to have achieved this accomplishment for three consecutive years.

“This honor means that our community can turn to Sparks with confidence, knowing that we strive to provide excellent care every day,” Dan McKay, CEO for Sparks Health System and Summit Medical Center, said in a statement. “Following evidence-based clinical protocols close to 100 percent of the time is not an easy goal to reach, but one that has been achieved through the dedication of our physicians, nurses and other caregivers.” 


Sparks was recognized for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance for Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia, and Surgical Care. Sparks is one of only 16 hospitals in the state named a Top Performer in 2013. Sparks is one of just 314 hospitals across the country to have achieved this accomplishment for three consecutive years.

To be a 2013 Top Performer, hospitals had to meet three performance criteria based on 2013 accountability measure data, including:
• Achieving cumulative performance of 95% or above across all reported accountability measures;

• Achieving performance of 95% or above on each and every reported accountability measure where there were at least 30 denominator cases; and

• Having at least one core measure set that had a composite rate of 95% or above, and (within that measure set) all applicable individual accountability measures had a performance rate of 95% or above.