West Jefferson Receives Two Prestigious Awards from Healthgrades for Stroke Care

West Jefferson Medical Center (WJMC) accepted two prestigious national awards from Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.

2018 America’s 100 Best for Stroke Care Trophy

2018 Stroke Care Excellence Award

The awards were accepted by West Jefferson’s Chief Nursing Officer, Monica Bologna during a presentation held on this afternoon in the hospital’s atrium.

“We are proud to be one of two hospitals in Louisiana to receive both these prestigious awards, a true validation of the outstanding care provided by our team of physicians, nurses and staff,” said Nancy R. Cassagne, President and CEO of West Jefferson Medical Center. “This recognition by Healthgrades further demonstrates our continued commitment to delivering the best care possible through progressive stroke treatments.”

West Jefferson is one of 100 hospitals to receive the honor of America’s 100 Best for Stroke, out of nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide. Additionally, WJMC is one of only two hospitals in Louisiana to receive this award.

From 2014-2016, patients treated at hospitals which did not receive the America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Stroke Care Award are on average 1.57 times more likely to die than if they were treated at hospitals that did receive the award.* Similarly, from 2014-2016, patients treated at hospitals receiving the America’s 100.

Best Hospitals for Stroke Care Award have on average, 36.4% lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award.

West Jefferson is the recipient of the Healthgrades Stroke Care Excellence Award for the second consecutive year. This achievement places WJMC among the Top 5% of hospitals in the nation for Stroke Care, as measured by lowest risk-adjusted mortality. WJMC is one of only two hospitals in Louisiana, out of nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide, to receive this distinction.

From 2014-2016, patients treated at hospitals receiving the Stroke Care Specialty Excellence Award have, on average a 34% lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award.** During this same time period, patients treated at hospitals which did not receive the Stroke Care Specialty Excellence Award have, on average, 1.5 times more likely to die than if they were treated at hospitals that did receive the award.

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide to assess hospital performance in 32 common conditions and procedures, and evaluate comparative outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer data provided by 17 states. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5-star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3-star (not statistically different from expected) and 1-star (statistically significantly worse than expected) categories. The complete Healthgrades 2018 Report to the Nation and detailed study methodology, can be found at www.healthgrades.com/quality.

*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2014 through 2016 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only

**Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2014 through 2016 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only