Hospital lauds its banner year

GLENDALE — A stream of 105 banners will soon fly over the city’s busiest streets courtesy of Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center, which will be honored for the third year in a row as one of the nation’s top medical centers.

The installation of the 8-foot-tall banners follows Glendale Memorial’s announcement last week that HealthGrades will name it as one of the top 50 hospitals in America. The award will not officially be released until February, when HealthGrades, a Colorado-based independent health-care organization, intends to publicize the results of other leading hospitals around the country.

But that hasn’t stopped Glendale Memorial officials from celebrating.

“It’s really a testament to the medical staff and physicians that practice here,” said Kim Stranger, interim president of the hospital. “We’re very proud of the fact that Glendale has been [honored] once again.”

The annual award, which HealthGrades has been doling out since 1998, rates the quality of care at nearly all of the nation’s 5,000 hospitals, including a lengthy analysis of 41 million hospitalization records at each medical center in the U.S., spokesman Scott Shapiro said.

“It’s the best achievers across the board,” he said. “It’s a really difficult list to be on. Your patient outcomes have to be some of the best in the country.”

Patient outcomes are a combination of a hospital’s mortality rates and number of complications from surgeries, Shapiro said.

The organization also looks at about 25 other statistics and uses a methodology that considers differences in patient demographics and the underlying medical conditions that could increase the patient’s risk of mortality or complications. The final result comes in the form of star ratings and is published on the organization’s website each February to help consumers evaluate and compare hospital performance, Shapiro said.

Statistics for Glendale Memorial, at 1420 S. Central Ave., were not immediately available.

The hospital has been able to maintain low rates of mortality and complications by implementing new procedures that cut down on patient risks, said Petar Vukasin, the chief of staff at Glendale Memorial.