For the fifth consecutive year, Rockingham Memorial Hospital has been ranked among the nation’s top 5 percent of hospitals for overall clinical excellence based on a study by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings company.

Because of its outstanding quality performance, RMH has received the HealthGrades 2009 Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™. RMH is one of only 82 hospitals in the nation to have achieved this milestone for five consecutive years.

“Nothing takes higher priority at RMH than providing the best care possible to our patients,” said RMH President and CEO Jim Krauss. “Being recognized by HealthGrades with this special award for five consecutive years is a distinctive honor for our staff and physicians. It assures our patients that they are consistently receiving evidence-based, high-quality care.”

Each year, HealthGrades conducts a comprehensive study of hospital quality in America, producing ratings for every non-federal hospital in 27 diagnoses and procedures. Hospitals that receive the Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence are those that place among the top 5 percent nationally when all 27 ratings are combined into a comprehensive score. Of approximately 5,000 hospitals studied, only 270 hospitals are designated as distinguished hospitals. Only eight hospitals in Virginia received this distinction for 2009.

According to the HealthGrades study of 41 million patient records from 2005-2007, patients admitted to a hospital receiving this award were, on average, 27 percent less likely to die and 5 percent less likely to suffer from a major complication. Because the hospitalization records come from the federal government, no hospital can opt in or out of HealthGrades' rating process. The analysis is risk-adjusted to account for differences in patient populations between hospitals.

• Recipient of the HealthGrades Pulmonary Care Excellence Award™ (fifth consecutive year)--Ranked among the top 5 percent in the nation and best in Virginia for overall pulmonary services.
  

• Recipient of the HealthGrades Coronary Intervention Excellence Award™ (second consecutive year)--Ranked among the top 5 percent in the nation and best in Virginia for coronary intervention procedures (opening a blocked coronary artery using a balloon catheter and, possibly, stents).
  

• Recipient of the HealthGrades Gastrointestinal Care Excellence Award™ (second consecutive year)--Ranked among the top 10 percent in the nation and #4 in Virginia for overall GI services.
  

• Recipient of the HealthGrades Gastrointestinal Surgery Excellence Award™ (second consecutive year)--Ranked among the top 5 percent in the nation and #2 in Virginia for GI surgery.

“Awards like these attest to our continuous pursuit of quality,” said Krauss. “Our patients and their families trust us to give the highest level of care and customer service. We do not take that fact for granted. As we prepare to move to a new hospital and health campus where we will begin our second century of service, our community can be assured that we remain focused on our commitment to providing high quality care.”