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Healthcare Q & A

1) What is Healthcare Quality?
2) Why is a Quality Initiative Important?
3) Is Quality the Same As Safety?
4) How Can I Know if a Hospital is Providing Quality Care?
5) How Does STHS Compare Against Other Hospitals on Quality?
6) Has STHS Received Any Quality Awards or Distinctions?
7) What Can I Do to Ensure Quality Care?

1) What is Healthcare Quality?
At Saint Thomas Health healthcare quality has always been a primary concern. As part of one of the largest not-for-profit healthcare systems in the nation, providing compassionate, patient-centered care is at the core of what we do. To us, quality means ensuring that each patient receives the right care at the right time and delivering that care in a safe, reliable and compassionate manner.

2) Why is a Quality Initiative Important?
We understand that to many of our patients, quality may mean getting into an appointment on time or being able to spend time talking with his or her physician or being treated well by our staff, but at Saint Thomas we know that primary healthcare quality is the level of care that our patients receive. Saint Thomas Health consists of four hospitals with more than 6500 employees who care for more than sixty thousand patients each year. In an organization this large, it's imperative that we are able to identify and implement best practices from evidenced-based care (care have been proven successful) in order to achieve and ensure quality excellence throughout our hospital system. The Quality Report helps us do that.

3) Is Quality the Same As Safety?
They're not the same but quality and safety do go hand in hand. When we implement proven practices that improve our quality of care, it creates a safer environment for our patients, our staff and our physicians. The goal of our safety program is to provide highly reliable care that is defect free.

4) How Can I Know if a Hospital is Providing Quality Care?
There are a lot of different ways to measure quality of healthcare and the good news is that the nation and our healthcare community has become committed to implementing tools for measurement and creating more transparency - meaning the knowledge we acquire from our measurement tools is now readily accessible for all.

Consumers can now review process indicators (such as timeliness and baseline practices) as well as outcome indicators (such as mortality rates, infection rates and readmission rates), to compare hospitals and providers. In many cases they can compare these results against state-wide results as well as nationally.

Many organizations, such as The Joint Commission (TJC), the nation's leading standards-setting and accrediting body in healthcare, will offer recognitions and/or accreditations (seals of approval) as a way for consumers to identify institutions that offer the best quality of care.

5) How Does STH Compare Against Other Hospitals?
Overall, Saint Thomas Health hospitals do very well compared against other hospitals in the state and across the nation. Like many hospitals, we excel in certain areas and are working to improve our quality of care in others. We are excited with the opportunity to participate in these comparative studies and are continually working to analyze the data to identify areas in which we can improve and develop procedures, based on best practices, that will enable us to move forward in our quest for excellence in quality care.

6) Has STH Received Any Quality Awards or Distinctions?
Within the past two years, the hospitals of Saint Thomas Health have received the following awards or distinctions.

Saint Thomas Hospital

  • Five StarsNamed the only hospital in Nashville to receive HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence Award
  • Named one of top 100 Cardiovascular Hospitals
  • Five Stars Received a 5 Star Rating for Hip Fracture Repairs
  • Received Patient Safety Award
  • Received Patient Experience Award

Baptist Hospital

  • Recevied HealthGrades Coronary Intervention Excellence Award
  • Five Stars Five-Star rated for Coronary Interventional Procedures
  • Ranked in Top 10% of the nation for Coronary Interventional Procedures
  • Ranked among the Top 10 in Tennessee for Overall Cardiac Services
  • Ranked among the Top 10 in Tennessee for Cardiac Surgery
  • Ranked among the Top 10 in Tennessee for Cardiology Services
  • Ranked among the Top 10 in Tennessee for Coronary Interventional Procedures
  • Five Stars Received HealthGrades Gastrointestinal Surgery Excellence Award
  • Five Stars Five-Star rated for Gastrointestinal Procedures and Surgeries
  • Five Stars Five-Star rated for Treatment for Gastrointestinal Bleed
  • Five Stars Five-Star rated for Treatment of Bowel Obstruction
  • Ranked among the Top 10% in the nation for Overall Gastrointestinal Care
  • Ranked among the Top 5 in Tennessee for Overall Gastrointestinal Care
  • Ranked among the Top 5 in Tennessee for GI Medical Treatment
  • Ranked among the Top 10 in Tennessee for Joint Replacement
  • Ranked among the Top 10 in Tennessee for Overall Pulmonary Services
  • Ranked among the Top 10 in Tennessee for Vascular Surgery
  • Five Stars Five-Star rated for Overall Pulmonary Services
  • Five Stars Five-Star rated for Pneumonia

7) What Can I Do to Ensure Quality Care?
At Saint Thomas we are working to create an environment that will encourage our patients to take a proactive role in the care that hey receive. The efforts you make can make a difference. As a patient, taking a proactive role means being involved in decisions about your care. Ask questions. Do your homework to learn about your condition and utilize the quality information available to make informed healthcare decisions.