Delray Medical Center announced today it’s a recipient of the Healthgrades 2019 Patient Safety Excellence AwardTM for the second year in a row. This distinction places Delray Medical Center among the top 5% of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades, a leading online resource for information about physicians and hospitals.

During the study period (2015 to 2017), Healthgrades 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospitals demonstrated excellent performance in safety provided for patients in the Medicare population, as measured by objective outcomes (risk-adjusted patient safety indicator rates) for 14 patient safety indicators defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award were, as compared to patients at non-recipients hospitals, on average*:

• 55.9% less likely to experience an accidental cut, puncture, perforation or hemorrhage during medical care.
• 50.9% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest.
• 64.4% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital.
• 57% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital.

In addition, if all hospitals in the country performed at the level of award recipients for each of the 14 Patient Safety Indicators, 127,667 patient safety events could have been avoided.*

“It is an honor to be recognized as one of the nation’s safest hospitals, because it means we are doing our job in providing our patients with the safest experience possible,” said Maggie Gill, chief executive officer at Delray Medical Center. “Our outstanding physicians, nurses and staff earned this achievement on behalf of the patients.”

“We are proud to recognize the recipients of the 2019 Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award, which shines a spotlight on the hospitals that are preventing the occurrence of serious, potentially avoidable complications, for patients during their hospital stay,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “We applaud these hospitals and their commitment to providing the best possible care for every patient.”

View Healthgrades hospital quality methodologies.