Photo Courtesy of Clara Maass Medical Center From left are Dr. Naveen Ballem, interim chief medical officer; Andrea Barbier, medical staff president; Robert Gaccione, board of trustees chairperson; Mary Ellen Clyne, president and CEO; Dr. Frank Mazzarella, chief continuing care officer; and Teresa DiElmo, chief nursing officer.
From left are Dr. Naveen Ballem, interim chief medical officer; Andrea Barbier, medical staff president; Robert Gaccione, board of trustees chairperson; Mary Ellen Clyne, president and CEO; Dr. Frank Mazzarella, chief continuing care officer; and Teresa DiElmo, chief nursing officer.
BELLEVILLE, NJ — Clara Maass Medical Center, an RWJBarnabas Health facility, is a recipient of the Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award. This distinction places Clara Maass Medical Center among the nation’s top 5 percent of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems.
During the study period from 2016 to 2018, Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospitals demonstrated excellent performance in safeguarding patients in the Medicare population, as measured by objective outcomes — risk-adjusted patient safety indicator rates, or PSIs — for 13 PSIs defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
“As part of our journey to become a high reliability organization, we consider patient safety to be the highest priority and it remains a concerted effort across all areas of Clara Maass Medical Center, including our physicians, nurses, staff, volunteers and leadership,” CMMC President and CEO Mary Ellen Clyne said. “Safety is an important measure for patients and even more so for our community. It provides them with assurance that they will receive outstanding care at our facility.”
“We have made a number of significant improvements to move towards clinical excellence, such as increasing the size of our infection prevention team, which has been particularly vital to our patient safety efforts. Having earned another recognition for patient safety, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, affirms that our leadership team has made the right investments in our clinical effectiveness initiatives,” CMMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Naveen Ballem said.
Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award were, on average 48.3 percent less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals; 54.4 percent less likely to experience a hip fracture following surgery than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals; 66.8 percent less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals; and 63 percent less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital than patients treated at non-recipient hospitals.
“Consumers might not know that information around patient safety is readily available and should be considered when researching health care options,” Healthgrades Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brad Bowman said. “We commend the recipients of the 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award for their dedication to providing excellent care for their patients.”
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