Clinical outcomes place Our Lady of Lourdes with 5-star ratings in several cardiac care services and treatment of stroke, HealthGrades study finds.

CAMDEN, NJ (October 15, 2007) – A HealthGrades study of hospital quality in America has identified Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center as the best in southern New Jersey, and among the top 10 percent of hospitals in the nation, for treatment of stroke.

According to The Tenth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study, Our Lady of Lourdes also received the following recognitions:

• The 2008 HealthGrades Stroke Care Excellence AwardTM, along with five-star ratings in stroke treatment for the fifth consecutive year.

• Five-star ratings for coronary bypass surgery (second straight year), heart valve surgery, coronary interventions and treatment of heart failure (fifth consecutive year).

• Our Lady of Lourdes' overall cardiac services and coronary intervention programs are both ranked among the top five in New Jersey, while the cardiac surgery and cardiology programs are ranked among the six best statewide.

Patients admitted to the nation's top-performing hospitals have, on average, a 71 percent lower chance of dying than those treated at one-star hospitals, across 18 procedures and conditions, according to the study released today by HealthGrades. HealthGrades is the nation's leading independent ratings company.

"Offering the highest quality care is our top priority," said Alexander J. Hatala, president and CEO of the Lourdes Health System. "These ratings demonstrate our commitment to excellence and reassure the public that when they come to Lourdes for care, they are getting the very best."

"Our research shows that while the overall quality of hospital care in America is improving, the gap between the best-performing hospitals and the worst persists," said Dr. Samantha Collier, HealthGrades' chief medical officer and author of the study. "This persistent gap makes it imperative that anyone planning to be admitted to a hospital do their homework and seek out highly rated facilities."

The Tenth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study identifies key trends in the quality of care provided by approximately 5,000 hospitals nationwide. HealthGrades researchers analyzed Medicare discharges from every U.S. hospital between 2004 and 2006. Risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates were calculated and hospitals were assigned a 1-star (poor), 3-star (as expected), or 5-star (best) quality rating for 28 diagnoses and procedures. Individual hospital quality results from this study are available at www.healthgrades.com.

Among the study's key findings:

• Large gaps persist between the "best" and the "worst" hospitals across all procedures and conditions studied. Five-star rated hospitals had significantly lower risk-adjusted mortality across all three years studied.

• Across all procedures and conditions studied, there was an approximate 71 percent lower chance of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to a 1-star rated hospital.

• Across all procedures and conditions studied, there was an approximate 52 percent lower chance of dying in a 5-star rated hospital compared to the U.S. hospital average.

The 2008 HealthGrades ratings for all hospitals nationwide are available, free of charge, on the organization's award-winning consumer Web site, located at www.healthgrades.com. More than three million individuals and employees of some of the nation's largest employers and health plans visit HealthGrades each month to access quality information about hospitals, nursing homes and physicians. HealthGrades also provides consumers and payers with detailed assessments of hospitals' patient-safety outcomes, based on indicators developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, N.Y, Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center is a 410-bed regional referral center, known for providing the most sophisticated levels of care. Services include the New Jersey Heart Institute at Lourdes, one of the largest providers of cardiac services in the Delaware Valley; the Regional Perinatal Center for high-risk mothers and infants; the Lourdes Regional Rehabilitation Center; the Southern New Jersey Regional Dialysis Center; and the Center for Organ Transplantation providing kidney, pancreas and liver transplants. Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center is part of the Lourdes Health System. It is a member of Catholic Health East, a health system with 31 hospitals on the East Coast.