St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children Earns ‘Top Performer on Key Quality Measures®’

PHILADELPHIA - Nov. 19, 2014 - PRLog -- St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, located at 160 East Erie Avenue in Philadelphia, is pleased to announce that it has been recognized as a 2013 Top Performer on Key Quality Measures^® for children’s asthma by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States. St. Christopher’s is the only hospital in Pennsylvania to receive this particular recognition for 2013.

St. Christopher’s 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 asthma in 2013. The hospital is one of 1,224 hospitals in the United States to achieve the 2013 Top Performer distinctionand one of 20 pediatric hospitals in the country receiving for asthma.

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 third year that St. Christopher’s has been recognized as a Top Performer; the hospital was also recognized in 2012 and 2013 (in 2012 with the 2011 award; in 2013 with the 2012 award) for its performance on accountability measure data for children’s asthma.

St. Christopher’s is one of only of 712 hospitals to achieve the Top Performer distinction for the past two consecutive years.

“At St. Christopher’s, our top priority is providing high-quality care to our patients in a safe and personal way. Year after year, we remain dedicated in improving positive patient outcomes through evidence-based care processes,” says Carolyn Jackson, chief executive officer at St. Christopher’s. “We’re proud to be named a Top Performer for asthma. It truly exemplifies the dedication, teamwork, and skills of our staff in our asthma clinic, as well as throughout the hospital.”

Through St. Christopher’s A-HA Clinic (After Hospital Asthma), specialists at St. Christopher’s work to improve better asthma management and education, increase post-hospital follow-up visits, and decrease re-admissions and repeat visits to the emergency room for asthma.

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 percent or above across all reported accountability measures;

·         Achieving performance of 95 percent 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 percent or above, and (within that measure set) all applicable individual accountability measures had a performance rate of 95 percent or above.

Accountability measures address compliance with administration of asthma medications during the hospital stay, and with assuring patients receive a home management plan of care at the time of discharge.  In 2012 and 2013, St. Christopher’s Hospital sustained 100% performance on asthma medication management.  The plan of care increased from 96.3% in 2012 to 98.7%  in 2013.

For more information about the Top Performer program, visit http://www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.