Banner Health today announced that North Colorado Medical Center has received the Healthgrades 2015 America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award™. The distinction makes North Colorado Medical Center one of the top 1% of more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide for its consistent, year-over-year superior clinical performance as measured by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.

North Colorado Medical Center is the only hospital in the Northern Colorado Front Range area to receive this designation. NCMC’s recognition as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award, 2015™ follows four consecutive years as an America’s 100 Best Hospitals Award™ designee and seven consecutive years as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence™.

McKee Medical Center (Loveland) has also been named a recipient of several Healthgrades 2015 quality awards.

“As the healthcare industry continues to change and evolve, our team of employees, physicians and volunteers are consistently recognized for achieving excellent patient outcomes,” said Rick Sutton, Banner Health Northern Colorado chief executive officer. “The focus of every member of our health care team on quality patient outcomes and the patient experience contributes to making this designation and these quality awards possible.”

From 2011 through 2013, Healthgrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award™ recipients, as a group, had a 25.0% lower risk adjusted mortality rate across 19 procedures and conditions where in-hospital mortality was the clinical outcome, compared to all other hospitals. During this same period, if all other hospitals performed at the level of America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award™ recipients across these 19 procedures and conditions, 168,239 lives could potentially have been saved. For example, patients treated at a hospital that has achieved the America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award™ had, on average, a 26.6% lower risk of dying from heart failure than if treated at a hospital that did not receive the award.

Variation in hospital performance exists locally as well as nationally. For example, in the Denver, CO region, there was 1 hospital out of 9 eligible hospitals for the America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award™.  North Colorado Medical Center is among the hospitals in the Denver, CO region with some of the best quality care across at least 21 of 32 common inpatient conditions and procedures evaluated by Healthgrades over a period of at least 6 years. In addition to NCMC, Centura Penrose St. Francis Health Services and St. Francis Medical Center in Colorado Springs were named to the America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award 2015™ list.

“The Healthgrades analysis shows that not all hospitals perform equally, so it is important that consumers do their homework when selecting a hospital,” said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer, Healthgrades. “Those hospitals that have achieved the Healthgrades distinction have demonstrated a commitment to exceptional clinical quality care over an extended period of time.”

Both McKee and NCMC were recipients of additional Healthgrades awards including:

  • 2015 Pulmonary Care Excellence Award™
  • Five-Star quality rating in Neurosciences for treatment of stroke
  • Five-Star quality rating in Pulmonary for treatment of Pneumonia
  • Five-Star quality rating in Critical Care for treatment of Sepsis and Respiratory Failure

McKee also received a Five-Star rating for Coronary Interventional Procedures. NCMC additionally received the Excellence Awards for Critical Care and Stroke Care as well as America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Pulmonary Care.

The 50 recipients of the America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award™ stand out among the rest for overall clinical excellence across a broad spectrum of care. During the 2015 study period (2011-2013), these hospitals showed superior performance in clinical outcomes for patients in the Medicare population across at least 21 of 32 of the most common inpatient conditions and procedures —as measured by objective performance data (risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complications). To learn more about how Healthgrades determines America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award ™ recipients, please visit www.healthgrades.com/quality.

About McKee Medical Center

McKee Medical Center is a fully accredited, private nonprofit facility in Loveland, Colo., owned by Banner Health, a nonprofit healthcare system with 28 hospitals in seven states. It offers emergency care, cancer care, heart care, orthopedics, inpatient and outpatient surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, rehabilitation, intensive care, lab and medical imaging. For more information, please visit www.BannerHealth.com/McKee.

 

About North Colorado Medical Center

North Colorado Medical Center is a fully accredited, private, nonprofit facility licensed in Greeley, Colo., operated by Banner Health, a nonprofit healthcare system with 28 hospitals in seven states. It serves as a regional medical center with community-based and specialty services in a service area including southern Wyoming, western Nebraska, western Kansas and northeastern Colorado. For more information, visit www.BannerHealth.com/NCMC.

 

About Healthgrades
Healthgrades, headquartered in Denver, is the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. Nearly one million people a day use Healthgrades websites to find, compare, select and connect with a doctor or hospital, and use its comprehensive information about clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, patient safety, and health conditions to make more informed healthcare decisions. For more information please visit www.healthgrades.com and www.bettermedicine.com.

Healthgrades Hospital Quality Distinctions
Healthgrades evaluate hospital performance for nearly 4,500 hospitals across the nation in 32 procedures and conditions annually. Healthgrades.com provides information on objective measures of hospital performance, which allows consumers to compare their local hospitals online at www.healthgrades.com/find-a-hospital. Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance for nearly every hospital in the nation; no hospital can opt-in or opt-out of being evaluated, and no hospital pays to be evaluated. Mortality and complication rates are risk adjusted, which takes into account the differing severity of illness at different hospitals and allows for hospitals to be compared fairly.