Atlantic General Hospital Earns 'Top Performer on Key Quality Measures®' Recognition from The Joint Commission

Berlin, Md. – Atlantic General Hospital announced today it has been recognized as a 2013 Top Performer on Key Quality Measures^® by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States.

Atlantic General was recognized as part of The Joint Commission’s 2014 annual report “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety,” for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance for surgical care and pneumonia. Atlantic General is one of 1,224 hospitals in the United States to achieve the 2013 Top Performerdistinction, and is the only hospital on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to do so.

The Top Performer program recognizes hospitals for improving performance on evidence-based interventions that increase the chances of healthy outcomes for patients with certain conditions, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma, stroke, venous thromboembolism and perinatal care, as well as for inpatient psychiatric services and immunizations.

To be a 2013 Top Performer, hospitals had to meet three performance criteria based on 2013 accountability measure data, including:

• Achieving cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures;
• Achieving performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure where there were at least 30 denominator cases; and
• Having at least one core measure set that had a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and (within that measure set) all applicable individual accountability measures had a performance rate of 95 percent or above.

“Delivering the right treatment in the right way at the right time is a cornerstone of high-quality health care. I commend the efforts of Atlantic General Hospital for their excellent performance on the use of evidence-based interventions,” said Mark R. Chassin, M.D., FACP, M.P.P., M.P.H., president and CEO, The Joint Commission.

“We understand what matters most to patients at Atlantic General Hospital is the quality and safety of the care they receive. That is why we have made it a top priority to improve positive patient outcomes through evidence-based care processes,” said Bob Yocubik, director of quality at Atlantic General Hospital.

“Atlantic General is proud to be named a Top Performer as it recognizes the knowledge, teamwork and dedication of our physicians and our entire hospital staff,” said Michael Franklin, CEO of Atlantic General Hospital.

For more information about the Top Performer program, visithttp://www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.

About Atlantic General Hospital

Atlantic General Hospital has been providing quality health care to the residents of Worcester, Wicomico, Somerset (Md.) and Sussex (Del.) counties since May 1993. Built by the commitment and generosity of a dedicated community, the hospital’s state-of-the-art facility in Berlin, Md., combines old-fashioned personal attention with the latest in technology and services. It provides quality specialty care such as weight loss surgery, orthopedics, outpatient infusion for individuals with cancer or blood/autoimmune disorders, retina surgery and a comprehensive women’s diagnostic center. Atlantic General Health System, its network of more than 40 primary care providers and specialists, care for residents and visitors throughout the region. For more information about Atlantic General Hospital, visitwww.atlanticgeneral.org.

Caption: Atlantic General Hospital receives The Joint Commission’s Top Performer Award for pneumonia and surgical care. From left: Chuck Gizara, director of clinical operations; Bob Yocubik, director of quality; Ann Bergey, vice president of professional staff services and quality; and Jeanette Troyer, performance improvement coordinator.