NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – Southcoast Health today announced that it has achieved the Healthgrades 2016 Patient Safety Excellence Award, a designation that recognizes superior performance in hospitals that have prevented the occurrence of serious, potentially avoidable complications for patients during hospital stays. The distinction places Southcoast Health among the top 10 percent of hospitals in the nation for its excellent performance as evaluated by Healthgrades.

Southcoast Health was listed as one of just eight hospitals in Massachusetts to receive the prestigious Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award in a new study released by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.

“Southcoast Health staff work hard every single day to promote and maintain a culture of safety,” said Tim Eixenberger, Chief Nursing Officer for Southcoast Health. “We are proud of this achievement because the safety and wellbeing of our patients is a top priority as we deliver the highest quality healthcare to the communities that we serve.”

During the study period (2012-2014), Healthgrades 2016 Patient Safety Excellence Award recipient hospitals performed with excellence in providing safety for patients in the Medicare population, as measured by objective outcomes (risk-adjusted patient safety indicator rates) for 13 patient safety indicators defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

“The recipients of the Healthgrades 2016 Patient Safety Excellence Award have not only found ways to reduce patient safety events, but to outperform expectations in prevention of safety incidents,” said Evan Marks, Chief Strategy Officer, Healthgrades. “We applaud these hospitals for their performance and for their organizational commitment to delivering high-quality care.”

On average, 270,457 patient safety events could have been avoided if all hospitals, as a group from 2012 from 2014, performed similarly to hospitals performing better than expected on each of 13 Patient Safety Indicators evaluated by Healthgrades.

For more information about Healthgrades, to download a full copy of the report or to receive information about hospital and physician quality, visit: www.Healthgrades.com/quality.

healthgrades patient safety