Myrtle Beach, SC – At a time when hospital safety is front and center in the minds of our friends and neighbors, Grand Strand Medical Center earned the Healthgrades 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award™. This distinction places Grand Strand Medical Center among the top 5% of all short-term acute care hospitals reporting patient safety data as evaluated by Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems.
“Our #1 priority is and has always been the safety of our patients,” said Dr. Andrew Schwartz, Chief Medical Officer of Grand Strand Health. “You’re hearing a lot about hospital safety in the news. We’re proud to be able to offer our community a safe place to get the care they need.”
This is the second time in the last few weeks Grand Strand Medical Center has been recognized for excelling in patient safety. The hospital was graded an “A” in patient safety by The Leapfrog Group, a universally respected health organization.
“I’m so proud of our colleagues and medical staff members,” said Mark Sims, Chief Executive Officer of Grand Strand Health. “The fact that our health system is receiving this award for the fourth time in a row shows that patient safety is one of our top priorities. People should feel confident that our health system is a safe place for surgery or any medical emergency.”
Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals that earned the Patient Safety Excellence Award were, on average*:
- 48.3% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest.
- 54.4% less likely to experience a hip fracture following surgery.
- 66.8% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital.
- 63% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital.
Healthgrades also determined that if all hospitals in the country performed at the level of award earners for each of the 13 patient safety indicators they studied, more than 110,000 patient safety events could have been avoided.*
“Consumers might not know that information around patient safety is readily available and should be considered when researching healthcare options,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “We commend the recipients of the 2020 Patient Safety Excellence Award for their dedication to providing excellent care for their patients.”
View Healthgrades hospital quality methodologies.
*Statistics are calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology which is based primarily on AHRQ technical specifications (Version 2019.0.1) to MedPAR data for years 2016 through 2018 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.