Our Lady of the Lake named to top 40 Best Hospitals for Common Care in U.S.

BATON ROUGE, La., May 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Our Lady of the Lake is the only Louisiana hospital  named as a best hospital by U.S. News & World Report, a distinction earned by only 40 hospitals in the nation.  The publisher of Best Hospitals unveiled its analysis of hospital quality. The new Best Hospitals for common care ratings cover nearly every hospital in the country and evaluates each one in five common surgical procedures and medical conditions that account for millions of hospitalizations a year.

Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center is among 40 hospitals across the country ranked high-performing in all five common care areas which include hip replacement, knee replacement, heart bypass surgery, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Areas resulting in high-performing ratings means that quality data analyzed showed results that are statistically better than the national average.   

"At Our Lady of the Lake, our physicians and team members are committed to being transparent about our quality measures and dedicated to always working to improve how we deliver care. Sharing data and recognitions such as this one make us better by allowing our patients to make informed decisions and to be active participants in their healthcare," said K. Scott Wester, president and CEO of Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. 

A great example of transparency and commitment to high quality is demonstrated in The Value Guarantee^® offered by Our Lady of the Lake, along with our Bundled Payment initiative. Our Lady of the Lake is the only hospital in Louisiana and among a select few in the country to offer a surgery guarantee to patients and their insurance companies. The Value Guarantee is a key component in controlling healthcare costs for insurers, employers and patients themselves.

"Our Value Guarantee demonstrates to employers and insurers that we will address the overall cost of care by eliminating the need for post-surgical follow-up care or not charging for this care in the rare instance it is necessary," said Wester.

The Value Guarantee follows Our Lady of the Lake's selection as the only hospital in Louisiana to participate in the Medicare Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative. A project of the CMS Innovation Center, this is a quality improvement strategy that identifies and implements best practices for hip and/or knee replacement surgery. Through this program in which Our Lady of the Lake receives a single payment for all costs associated with a hip or knee replacement surgery, Medicare patients receive the same promise outlined in the Value Guarantee.

To generate the ratings, U.S. News & World Report evaluated 4,600 hospitals nationwide across more than 25 quality measures – including mortality, readmissions, infections and patient satisfaction scores – and analyzed more than five million patient records, taking into account each patient's health conditions, age, sex, socioeconomic status and other factors affecting risk. The ratings rely on Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data for patients 65 and older, as well as data from the American Hospital Association annual survey and clinical registry data from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

About Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center
Our Lady of the Lake is a not-for-profit 800-bed medical center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with more than 7,300 employees committed to building a healthy community through excellence in patient care and education.  With a Regional Medical Center, dedicated Children's Hospital, and 300-provider Physician Group, Our Lady of the Lake provides comprehensive healthcare services for common to complex conditions. Our Lady of the Lake is a primary teaching site for graduate medical education programs and is recognized in the areas of heart and vascular, trauma and emergency care, stroke, cancer care, minimally-invasive procedures and more.

Source: U.S. News & World Report

SOURCE Our Lady of the Lake