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Healthcare Professionals
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 For very sick patients, Mercy Hospital is among the best in the state. At Mercy, patients treated for heart attack, stroke and congestive heart failure have better outcomes than patients treated at most of the other hospitals in Illinois. And patients admitted to Mercy’s intensive care unit (ICU) spend less time in the ICU and have better outcomes than national benchmarks. That’s according to the Illinois Hospital Report Card and an analysis of ICU admissions and outcomes at hospitals across the country. That Mercy performs so well against other hospitals comes as no surprise to Kamran Mahmood, M.D., medical director of Mercy’s ICU and section chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine. “By following best-practice protocol and educating ourselves, our nursing staff and house physicians about the latest protocol, we’re able to meet patients’ needs faster and more effectively,” Dr. Mahmood says. Report Card Rankings The Illinois Hospital Report Card is published online by the Illinois Department of Public Health. It was created to provide patients the opportunity to access information about the quality of healthcare provided in Illinois. People can search by hospital name or region and compare hospitals on quality and safety data and patient satisfaction surveys. According to the most recent Report Card, Mercy had statistically significantly better mortality rates than the state average for a number of medical conditions, including heart attack, hip replacement, stroke, and congestive heart failure. Also, Mercy’s mortality rates for heart attack and congestive heart failure were better than several of Chicago’s well-known academic medical centers. Mercy’s overall heart failure care scored higher than both the state and national average. And the hospital received very high patient satisfaction marks. • 65% of discharged patients were highly satisfied, that’s higher than the Illinois average. • 82% of discharged patients said Mercy doctors always communicated well, that’s higher than the state and national average. • 75% of discharged patients said they would definitely recommend Mercy to friends and family, that’s higher than state and national average. Making the Report Card data available online is an important step toward patient safety, says Sr. Sheila Lyne, RSM, president and CEO of Mercy. “By researching area hospitals on quality, patient satisfaction and overall care, people can become better educated health care consumers and feel more confident about their healthcare decisions,” she says. ICU Excellence When it comes to caring for patients in intensive care, Mercy exceeds both state and national benchmarks. At Mercy’s ICU, patients tend to arrive sicker than patients in other ICUs. But they also spend less time in the ICU and have better outcomes, according to data recently collected as part of the APACHE IV scoring system. The system uses electronic medical records to capture data on ICU admissions and outcomes. It then compares Mercy’s results with national benchmarks. According to the latest APACHE data, Mercy’s ICU patients arrive with a severity of illness score of 64. The national average is just 50. Though they arrive sicker than average, Mercy patients actually spend less time in the ICU than they would at other ICUs. At Mercy, the average length of stay is 3 days; the national predicted average is 3.8 days. Mercy’s ICU patients also spend less time on a ventilator—2.6 days compared with national predicted average of 3.3 days. The longer a patient is on a ventilator the greater the risk of pneumonia, urinary tract infections and other complications, explains Dr. Mahmood. Finally, a patient’s chance of dying in Mercy’s ICU is lower than at other hospitals. The average mortality rate at Mercy’s ICU is 7.4 percent, compared with a national predicted average of 11.8 percent. Dr. Mahmood attributes the ICU success to the tightness of the unit. “From the ICU attendings, who are board certified and well-trained intensivists, to the nursing staff, we’re a very cohesive team,” he says. “Because our ICU is closed, meaning only Mercy physicians practice here, we can control the care and ensure that all patients receive only high-quality care.” Always Improving Throughout the hospital, Mercy is committed to collecting and evaluating outcomes and quality data. This hospital-wide focus has created an environment that encourages evaluation and re-evaluation, Dr. Mahmood says. “We’re always striving to improve quality. Even when we find that our parameters are good, we’re working to improve them,” he says. “We’re driven by a desire to provide the highest standard possible so our patients and physicians know they can rely on us when care is most urgently needed.” |
