ST. LOUIS – SSM DePaul Health Center recently received the prestigious Premier Award for Quality for treatment of patients with community-acquired pneumonia and heart failure. SSM DePaul was only Missouri hospital to receive the award, and one of only three hospitals across the country to be recognized for clinical excellence in multiple categories.
     This nationally recognized award honors clinical excellence in both quality of care and operational efficiency, differentiating its winners as industry leaders that not only deliver outstanding patient care but also reduce the cost of health care by improving resource utilization.
     The Premier Award for Quality, given in five clinical areas, and based on quality and cost data regularly submitted to Premier for reporting and benchmarking purposes, is distinguished by its consideration of performance-based criteria including clinical quality outcomes, clinical process indicators and resource utilization outcomes.
     “Better health care through better use of information and resources is what distinguishes Premier Award for Quality winners from their peers,” said Stephanie Alexander, senior vice president and general manager of Premier Healthcare Informatics. “These hospitals, big and small, are leading the industry using best practices and evidence-based decision-making to develop more efficient ways to deliver excellent patient care.”
     Clinical areas considered for the 2005 Premier Award for Quality were total joint replacement of the hip and/or knee, coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), heart failure (HF), community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
     Thirty-two hospitals nationwide received recognition, with three winners in each category for each hospital type from an eligible pool of nearly 400 Premier hospitals. Hospitals that submitted data to Premier’s Perspective™ clinical comparative database (the largest clinical comparative database in the nation) between July 2003 and July 2004 were eligible to participate in the 2005 Premier Award for Quality program.
     “Our physicians and employees seek better ways to improve patient care each and every day. The Premier Award for Quality is evidence of our success in developing more efficient ways of delivering exceptional health care to our patients,” said Melinda Clark, SSM DePaul Health Center President.
     On behalf of all SSM DePaul physicians and employees, Clark accepted the award at the 2005 Premier Annual Breakthroughs Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas May 18.
     “Technology today allows us to use comprehensive tools to collect and analyze data about the delivery of patient care over time. We are able to use these tools to see where improvements can be made and to track progress of quality improvement initiatives,” says Clark. “By analyzing how and what we do, we can do it better.”
     SSM DePaul Health Center has a rich, 177-year history of providing quality health care to St. Louis-area residents. SSM DePaul, located at I-270 and I-70, is the first hospital west of the Mississippi and today is part of the SSM Health Care-St. Louis. DePaul promotes health in our neighborhoods through a variety of community programs and provides advanced medical technology in the areas of cardiac, cancer, emergency, seniors and women’s health to assure high standards of care for all.

About Premier Healthcare Informatics
Premier Healthcare Informatics offers performance measurement, benchmarking, and reporting products and related advisory services and methodologies to support health systems’ and hospitals’ quality improvement efforts. Areas of expertise include JCAHO and CMS performance measurement, clinical and operational benchmarking, labor management programs, balanced scorecards, patient satisfaction, evidence-based research, and patient safety. Premier Healthcare Informatics is part of Premier, Inc., a strategic healthcare alliance that provides an array of performance solutions to hospitals and other providers. For more information about Premier Healthcare Informatics, go to www.premierinc.com/informatics.