ResQuality

Resurrection Hospitals Compare Poorly to their Peers on Key Quality Indicators

The 2008 Blue Star Hospital Report awarded hospitals up to ten possible stars based on their performance compared to their peer group in ten areas.  The report, published by BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois measured the performance of 90 urban hospitals in Illinois, including the eight Resurrection Health Care hospitals.

One-third of the Illinois hospitals received seven, eight or nine stars out of a possible ten.  None of the Resurrection hospitals received more than six stars and six Resurrection hospitals received 5 stars or fewer.⁴³

• None of the eight Resurrection hospitals received stars for their performance on the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's inpatient quality indicators.  This measure is based on the hospitals mortality rates for specific medical conditions compared to their peers:⁴⁴
  

  Hospital	Hospital Quality Alliance Indicators
  Resurrection Medical Center
  St. Francis of Evanston
  St. Joseph Hospital
  St. Mary of Nazareth Medical Center
  West Suburban Medical Center
  Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center
  St. Elizabeth Hospital
  Westlake Hospital

  
  
  
• Only one Resurrection Hospital Received a start for having an overall satisfaction score of at least 88 percent on a survey sent to members of BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois:⁴⁵
  

  Hospital	"Overall Satisfaction With Hospital Care"46
  Resurrection Medical Center
  St. Francis of Evanston
  St. Joseph Hospital
  St. Mary of Nazareth Medical Center	♦
  West Suburban Medical Center
  Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center
  St. Elizabeth Hospital
  Westlake Hospital

  
  
  
• Only one of Resurrection's eight hospitals received a star for having lower hospital complication rates than many of their peer hospitals:⁴⁷
  

Resurrection Scores Low on Care Measures

Resurrection Health Care hospitals also failed to rank among the top tier hospitals on process of care measures.  Process of care measures show how often hospitals follow standard practices known to get the best results for patients with certain medical conditions or surgical procedures.  The measures are identified by the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA), public-private collaboration established to promote reporting on hospital quality care, and are monitored and published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Resurrection hospitals scored below the nation's top performing hospitals 81 percent of the time on the measures used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to track how frequently hospitals adhere to the practices of procedures identified as essential to patient well being.⁴⁸

Source: U.S. Department of Human Services, “Hospital Compare,” HHS.gov, http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov/Hospital/Search/Welcome.asp?version=default&browser=IE%7C6%7CWinXP&language=English&defaultstatus=0&pagelist=Home Assessed 4/6/09.

Some of Resurrection's results among patients sampled by CMS researchers:

• More than a quarter of St. Francis of Evanston's Surgery patients were not given an antibiotic at the right time (within an hour before surgery) to help prevent infection.⁴⁹
  
  
• Twenty-three percent of St. Joseph Hospital's surgery patients were not given an antibiotic at the right time (within an hour before surgery) to help prevent infection.⁵⁰
  
  
• Only 29 percent of Resurrection Medical Center heart failure patients were given discharge instructions.⁵¹
  
  
• Thirty percent of West Suburban patients receiving certain types of surgery did not receive treatment to prevent blood clots within 24 hours of their surgery.⁵²
  
  
• Thirty-four percent of Westlake Hospital patients receiving certain types of surgery did not receive treatment to prevent blood clots within 24 hours of their surgery.⁵³
  
  
• More than a third of Saint Joseph Hospital heart attack patients did not receive the optimum treatment- an AVE or ARB inhibitor for Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction (LVSD).⁵⁴
  
  
• Thirty-eight percent of West Suburban pneumonia patients were not given smoking cessation advice or counseling.⁵⁵
  
  
• Only 30 percent of Westlake Hospital heart attack patients were given the proper treatment-PCI- within 90 minutes of arrival. ⁵⁶
  
  
• Only 44 percent of St. Francis of Evanston heart attack patients were given the proper treatment-PCI-within 90 minutes of arrival.⁵⁷
  
  
• Only 56 percent of Our Lady of the Resurrection heart attack patients were given the proper treatment-PCI- within 90 minutes of arrical.⁵⁸
  

View the footnotes to this page here.