(Niceville, FL) –Twin Cities Hospital and Fort Walton Beach Medical Center have been named Top Performers on Key Quality Measures® for the fourth year in a row by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in America.
Twin Cities Hospital and Fort Walton Beach Medical Center were recognized by The Joint Commission for exemplary performance in using evidence-based clinical processes that are shown to improve care for 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.
Twin Cities Hospital and Fort Walton Beach Medical Center are two of 1,224 hospitals in the U.S. to achieve the 2013 Top Performer distinction.
Fort Walton Beach Medical Center was recognized for its achievement on the following measure sets: Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia and Surgical Care. Twin Cities Hospital was recognized for its achievements in both Pneumonia and Surgical Care.
Fort Walton Beach Medical Center and Twin Cities Hospital are two of only of 147 hospitals to achieve the Top Performer distinction for the past four consecutive years. The ratings are based on an aggregation of accountability measure data reported to The Joint Commission during the 2013 calendar year.
“In our never ending drive to deliver high quality, safe, and patient-centric care, achieving this mark of distinction from The Joint Commission highlights the efforts every employee, physician, and volunteer makes at our hospitals every day,” said David Whalen, Twin Cities Hospital CEO. “This is a salute to everyone involved in the provision of care at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center and Twin Cities Hospital.”
Each of the hospitals named as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures must first achieve cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures. Second, they must achieve performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure where there were at least 30 denominator cases. Third, they must have at least one core measure set that had a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and within that measure set all applicable individual accountability measures had a performance rate of 95 percent or above.
A 95 percent score means a hospital provided an evidence-based 95 times out of 100 opportunities. Each accountability measure represents an evidence-based practice – for example, giving an aspirin at arrival for heart attack patients, giving antibiotics one hour before surgery, or providing a home management plan for children with asthma.
“At Fort Walton Beach Medical Center we have made it a top priority to address patient safety and quality health care by improving upon our evidence-based care processes,” said Mitch Mongell, FWBMC CEO. “We are proud to be named a Top Performer for the fourth consecutive year and thank our entire team of physicians and employees for their knowledge, compassion and dedication to improve Fort Walton Beach Medical Center’s performance.”
In addition to being included in the release of The Joint Commission’s “Improving America’s Hospitals” annual report, Fort Walton Beach Medical Center and Twin Cities Hospital will be recognized on The Joint Commission’s Quality Check website (www.qualitycheck.org). The Top Performer program will be featured in the December issues of The Joint Commission Perspectives.