Loyola University One of Top Ranked Hospitals for Patient Safety

Loyola University Medical Center ranked among the top six percent of major teaching hospitals in patient safety, according to new hospital rankings from Thomson Reuters.Thomson Reuters ranks hospitals on patient safety and other benchmarks in its new 2011 hospital benchmarks report.In the patient safety benchmark, Loyola University Medical Center was in the 94th percentile among 179 major teaching hospitals.

Unlike many other hospitals, physicians who practice at Loyola University Hospital are employees of the health system, not of an independent physician practice group. "Our integrated structure makes it much easier to adopt patient safety practices using the latest evidence-based guidelines," said Dr. Robert A. Cherry, Loyola University Health System chief medical officer and vice president of clinical effectiveness. "Physicians, nurses and administrators all work together to provide the best quality care for our patients."

"Patient Safety has become an increasingly important measure of hospital quality," the Thomson Reuters report said. Patient safety measures reflect "both clinical quality and the effectiveness of systems within the hospital."Thomson Reuters used data from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to rank hospitals in eight patient safety indicators: postoperative sepsis (infection); reopening of surgical wounds; postoperative respiratory failure; postoperative physiologic and metabolic derangements; postoperative hemorrhage or hematoma; selected infections due to medical care; death among patients with serious, treatable conditions; and iatrogenic pneumothorax (respiratory complication caused by a medical procedure).

For more information on patient safety programs at hospitals please visit www.psqh.com