DALLAS –– Tenet Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: THC) today announced that Palmetto General Hospital is one of 38 hospitals it operates to have received quality designations through CIGNA HealthCare, a subsidiary of CIGNA Corporation (NYSE:CI).
Palmetto received eight CIGNA Quality Designations for the following areas: Caesarean Section, Laparoscopic Gallbladder Removal, Gastric Bypass, Heart Attack, Total Abdominal Hysterectomy, Total Knee Replacement, Stroke and Vaginal Delivery
These quality designations are based on outcomes for treatment of 29 surgical procedures and medical conditions. The patient outcomes data are in part based on a hospital’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare measures, Leapfrog Patient Safety Measures, and their mortality and complication rates.
The designations indicate superior outcomes and about 57 percent of CIGNA HealthCare’s network hospitals receive a quality designation for treatment of at least one condition.
“These designations provide evidence of our hospitals’ commitment to providing high quality care,” said Stephen L. Newman, M.D., Tenet’s chief operating officer and interim chief medical officer. “Such recognitions demonstrate that our hospitals and staff deliver care that exceeds nationally recognized standards for the specific condition.
In fact, 76 percent of Tenet’s hospitals received a CIGNA HealthCare quality designation. We also have increased the total number of designations at our hospitals from 134 in 2007 to 214 in 2008, a 60 percent increase.”
In addition to these quality designations, 21 Tenet hospitals have received 60 Center of Excellence (COE) designations for 2008 from CIGNA HealthCare. These COE classifications mean that the hospitals met CIGNA HealthCare’s high standards for quality and efficiency.
“Our goal is to provide individuals with valuable information regarding those hospital programs that achieve both superior quality outcomes and superior affordability,” said Dick Salmon, M.D., Ph.D., senior national medical director at CIGNA HealthCare. “The Centers of Excellence designations are readily available to patients who use CIGNA Care Connections, an integrated online provider directory or through CIGNA HealthCare’s clinical resources such as 24 Health Information Line nurses.”