Fall River’s Saint Anne’s Hospital recipient of 2024 Patient Safety Excellence Award™

Fall River, MA – Saint Anne’s Hospital has announced that it has been recognized as a recipient of the 2024 Patient Safety Excellence Award™ by Healthgrades, the leading resource consumers use to find a hospital or doctor.

In addition, Saint Anne’s has been recognized by Healthgrades in 2024 as a five-star recipient in these categories:
•    Cardiac: Pacemaker procedures (2022-2024)
•    Orthopedics: Hip fracture treatment (2024)
•    Prostate surgery: Transurethral prostate resection surgery (2024)
•    Critical care: treatment of diabetic hospitalizations (2023-2024)

Saint Anne’s Hospital President Michael Bushell noted that these achievements, along with Saint Anne’s recent accomplishment as a seven-year Healthgrades Patient Experience Award recipient (2017-2023), reflect the hospital’s sustained commitment to delivering safe, high-quality care.

“Every member of the hospital team plays a role in ensuring patient safety,” said Bushell. “It’s gratifying that our Healthgrades recognitions reflect the commitment by our staff and providers to the goal of having a culture of safety and creating an environment dedicated to ‘zero harm.’ This means working every day to avoid patient safety events, but also avoiding harm to employees and missed opportunities to provide outstanding care. We applaud the efforts of every member of the hospital team in ensuring safe, high-quality care.”

To determine this year’s top-performing hospitals for patient safety, Healthgrades evaluated risk-adjusted complication and mortality rates for approximately 4,500 hospitals nationwide. During the 2020-2022 study period, nearly 170,000 potentially preventable safety events occurred among Medicare patients in U.S. hospitals, with four patient safety indicators accounting for close to 75% of these incidents.*

Healthgrades’ analysis revealed that patients treated in hospitals receiving the 2024 Patient Safety Excellence Award have a significantly lower chance of experiencing one of these four leading safety indicators than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals: 
•    in-hospital fall resulting in fracture (approximately 52% less likely)
•    collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest (approximately 56% less likely)
•    pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital (approximately 67% less likely)
•    catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital (approximately 71% less likely)

“Saint Anne’s Hospital has cultivated an outstanding safety culture that prioritizes the well-being of both patients and staff, setting a high standard for patient safety nationwide,” said Brad Bowman, MD, chief medical officer and head of data science at Healthgrades. “We’re proud to recognize Saint Anne’s for providing top-quality care while preventing serious injuries to patients during their hospital stay.”

To learn more about how Healthgrades measures hospital quality, visit healthgrades.com.

*Statistics are calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology which is based primarily on AHRQ technical specifications (Version 2023.0.1) to MedPAR data from approximately 4,500 hospitals for years 2020 through 2022 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.