Cary Medical Center has scored among the top 10% of hospitals in the United States in measuring performance on standards of care in the treatment of Pneumonia.  Cary scored 100% on five out of seven measures and outscored the nations top hospitals on two measures.  The scores reflect the results of the latest quality care assessment completed by the Hospital Quality Alliance (HQA).  The HQA is a reporting initiative providing information on the quality of care in hospitals who volunteered to report their data for selected clinical topics.

     The organizations website www.aha.org/aja_app/issues/HQA/index.jsp contains the latest data and resources available for this initiative to make hospital quality information publicly available and to improve the care hospitals provide.  The HQA performance data assesses hospitals on 24 different quality measures.  Beth Feldpush, Senior Associate Director for Quality at the American Hospital Association said that the performance measures used by the Hospital Quality Alliance have a strong evidence base.

     "The quality measures reflected in both HospitalCompare.gov and here in the Hospital Quality Alliance performance assessments have substantial science and well established literature behind them to indicate that performing well on these standards is the right thing to do to improve patient outcomes."

     Beyond Pneumonia care the assessment also measures hospital performance on managing heart attacks, heart failure, and surgical infection prevention.  Cary Medical Center outscored both the National and State of Maine averages on the combined scores.  Kris Doody, RN, and CEO at Cary Medical Center said that the hospitals high marks have come after years of effort and focus on quality.

     "We recognized several years ago that Public Accountability and Transparency were going to be the way of the future in health care", said Doody who serves on the hospitals quality committee.  "We began to focus on these key measures early on and became one of the first hospitals to put our scores on our web site.  We have continued to post our scores over the past three years.  I am so proud of how far we have come as an organization but more so because these independent surveys tell us we are doing the right thing for our patients."

     Cary Medical Center recently was named for the third straight time as a ‘Tier 1 Hospital' by the State of Maine Health Insurance Program, the only hospital north of Bangor to achieve such recognition.  Strong performance on patient safety and quality surveys is a major consideration for such acknowledgement.  John Bouchard, M.D., and Chairman of the hospitals Quality Committee, said that the performance of the clinical staff at Cary required to achieve such quality results has been remarkable.

     "These survey results are wonderful", said Bouchard who is a weekend hospitalist at Cary.  "There is a high level of commitment and team work here at Cary among all clinical staff.  To see the results of this effort recognized and to score at or above some of the nations top hospitals generates even greater motivation to raise the bar and achieve 100% in each measure."

     The success of the quality effort at Cary is driven by a constant exchange of ideas, knowledge and education among clinical staff.  Dr. Carl Flynn, President of the hospital's medical staff said that the cooperation among physicians and their willingness to advance their practice as new information is made available has been the key.

   "Physicians are, by nature, cautious about change" said Flynn who is a Family Practice Physician with Pines Health Services.  "They want to see the evidence and the data to support modifications in the way they treat their patients.  The ability to learn from resources provided by organizations like the Hospital Quality Alliance, the American Hospital Association and others helps to bring critical information into practice more readily than ever before.  We are in a constant learning environment and it is an exciting time for health care.  The challenge is to remain flexible and to be open to change when the evidence is clear and convincing."

     The source of the data presented by the HQA survey is the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and was released March 28, 2008.  The data collection period for this release is July 2006 through June 2007.