Blanchard Valley Hospital is a recipient of the 2010 HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence AwardTM, meaning that its patient safety ratings are in the top 5% of U.S. hospitals.

This award was based on a new study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization. Blanchard Valley is one of only 17 hospitals in Ohio and one of only 238 hospitals in the country to receive this designation.

The seventh annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study analyzed nearly 40 million hospitalization records from approximately 5,000 hospitals nationwide that participate in the Medicare program. Participation in the HealthGrades study is not voluntary. Hospitals cannot choose to opt out of the analysis.

If all hospitals performed at the level of Patient Safety Excellence AwardTM hospitals like Blanchard Valley Hospital, approximately 218,572 patient safety events and 22,590 Medicare deaths could have been avoided while saving the U.S. approximately $2.1 billion in excess costs from 2006 through 2008.

Medicare patients at hospitals receiving the HealthGrades Patient Safety Excellence AwardTM were, on average, 43% less likely to experience a patient safety event.

The seventh annual HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study applies methodology developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to identify the incidence rates of 15 patient safety indicators among Medicare patients at virtually all of the nation's nearly 5,000 nonfederal hospitals. Additionally, HealthGrades applied its methodology using 12 patient safety indicators to identify the best-performing hospitals, or Patient Safety Excellence AwardTM Hospitals, which represent the top 5% of all U.S. hospitals. HealthGrades developed this award to give patients more information about choosing a hospital.

In the HealthGrades analysis, the following are the patient safety indicators studied:

. Complications of anesthesia
. Death in low mortality Diagnostic Related Groupings (DRGs)
. Decubitus ulcer (bed sores)
. Death among surgical inpatients with serious treatable complications
. Iatrogenic pneumothorax (collapsed lung)
. Selected infections due to medical care
. Post-operative hip fracture
. Post-operative hemorrhage or hematoma
. Post-operative physiologic and metabolic derangements
. Post-operative respiratory failure
. Post-operative pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis
. Post-operative sepsis
. Post-operative abdominal wound dehiscence
. Accidental puncture or laceration
. Transfusion reaction

For more information, visit www.bvhealthsystem.org and click on About BVHS, Awards and Honors.