Press Releases 2007

In The News

National Study Recognizes Community Medical Center for Clinical Excellence

Leading Healthcare Ratings Company Ranks Community Medial Center
Among Top Five Percent Nationally –Three Years in a Row

TOMS RIVER, New Jersey, January 29, 2007 – Today HealthGrades, the leading health care ratings company, announced that in a national quality study of the country’s 4,971 hospitals, Community Medical Center was named one of the top five percent in the nation and a recipient of the 2007 Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™. Of significance, Community Medical Center has received this designation from HealthGrades for three consecutive years -- 2005, 2006 and 2007.

The study conducted by HealthGrades puts Community Medical Center in the top five percent of hospitals in the nation for significantly lower mortality rates and significantly lower major complication rates.

Each year, HealthGrades conducts the most comprehensive studies of hospital quality in America, producing a rating for every non-federal hospital in 28 diagnoses and procedures. Hospitals that receive the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence are those hospitals that place among the top five percent nationally when all 28 ratings are aggregated into a comprehensive score. Only 266 hospitals nationwide are recognized.

Mark D. Pilla, executive vice president of operations for the Saint Barnabas Health Care System and executive director of Community Medical Center, said, “This award truly speaks to the culture of quality that exists at Community Medical Center. To be among the top five percent of hospitals in the nation, for three years in a row, is a testament to our ongoing commitment to provide the highest quality services to the patients we serve. It is only through teamwork and the dedication of our staff that Community Medical Center has been recognized with this honor. It is because of our nurses, physicians, staff and volunteers that we are among the best in the nation.”

Along with the Distinguished Hospital Award, Community Medical Center was previously recognized for Specialty Excellence in Pulmonary, General Surgery, and Orthopedics ranking in the top five percent nationally in these individual service lines. This demonstrates the quality available at Community Medical Center across all hospital services. The hospital is also a recipient of HealthGrades Patient Safety Award and its nurses are recipients of the prestigious Magnet status for nursing excellence.

Pilla added, “Patients and their families can be comforted in knowing that Community Medical Center is providing the highest quality health care services to the community with the most compassionate care possible.”

For its study, HealthGrades performed an analysis of almost 39 million Medicare hospitalization records that cover the latest three-year period, from 2003 to 2005. The analysis is risk-adjusted to account for differences in patient populations between hospitals. In the study, HealthGrades found that Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence outperformed all other hospitals across the procedures and diagnoses studied. HealthGrades estimates that if during the time period studied all patients had gone to a Distinguished Hospital, 158,264 lives could have been saved and 12,410 post-operative complications could have been avoided.

Community Medical Center (CMC) is an affiliate of the Saint Barnabas Health Care System, the largest integrated health care delivery system in New Jersey, with seven acute care hospitals, eight nursing homes, five ambulatory care facilities, three geriatric centers, three assisted living residencies, a freestanding 100-bed inpatient psychiatric facility and a statewide behavioral health network. Located in Toms River, Community is a fully accredited, acute-care 587-bed facility offering the most advanced, ultra-modern diagnostic and treatment services, including emergency and urgent care, laser and arthroscopic surgery, maternity and a Level II special care nursery and pediatrics unit. CMC offers the Community Regional Cancer Center, affiliated with the renowned Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia; state-of-the-art Radiation Oncology; a Renal Dialysis Center; a Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, as well as general medical and health care services to the residents of Ocean County; and the Center for Kids and Family with sites located in Toms River and Lacey. Community Medical Center has been awarded the esteemed Magnet Status for Nursing Excellence from the American Nurses Association's Credentialing Center (ANCC).

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