Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 14, 2008 – HealthGrades, a national, independent health care ratings company, today announced that Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis ranks among the top 5 percent in the nation for cardiac surgery, stroke, pulmonary, gastrointestinal and critical care.

In addition, the hospital ranks No. 1 in the state for cardiac surgery, the treatment of stroke and gastrointestinal surgery, and it is the best in the Memphis area for pulmonary, vascular and critical care, according to HealthGrades.

“It’s a great honor to be ranked among the best in the country in such important areas of care,” said Jason Little, administrator and CEO of Baptist Memphis. “These awards prove that some of the best physicians, nurses and other health care staff practice right here in Memphis, and I am so proud to work with them every day.”

The findings were included in the 11th annual “HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study,” which analyzed more than 41 million Medicare hospitalization records from 2005 to 2007 at the nation’s approximately 5,000 nonfederal hospitals. According to the study, if all hospitals performed at the level of five-star rated hospitals, 237,420 Medicare deaths could potentially have been prevented during the three years studied. More than half of those preventable deaths were associated with four conditions: sepsis, pneumonia, heart failure and respiratory failure.

While overall death rates declined from 2005 to 2007, the nation’s best-performing hospitals were able to reduce preventable deaths at a much faster rate than poor-performing hospitals, resulting in large state, regional and hospital-to-hospital variations in the quality of patient care, the study found.

Based on the study, HealthGrades today made available its 2009 quality ratings for virtually every hospital in the country at www.healthgrades.com, a Web site designed to help individuals research and compare local health care providers.

The Baptist Memphis campus includes the 706-bed hospital that is the flagship of the Baptist Memorial Health Care system. It serves as a major referral center for patients from across the Mid-South and offers many diagnostic, surgical and rehabilitation services. The hospital has added hundreds of beds in the past few years, with the opening of a new patient tower and the Baptist Heart Institute. Consumers have rated Baptist Memphis their most preferred hospital for overall health care services in an independent National Research Corp. poll for the past 13 years in a row.

For more information, please call 901-226-5000 or visit memphis.baptistonline.org.

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