Newberry County Memorial Hospital is 5-star rated for Total Knee Replacement outcomes according to a national report released by Healthgrades, the leading online resource for information about physicians and hospitals. This achievement is part of the Healthgrades 2020 Report to the Nation, which underscores the importance of hospital quality to both consumers and hospital leaders. Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 32 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions using Medicare data, and additional analyzes outcomes.

Variation in care has a significant impact on health outcomes. From 2016-2018, if all hospitals as a group performed similarly to hospitals receiving 5-stars as a group, on average, 220,019 lives could potentially have been saved and 149,403 complications could potentially have been avoided.* A 5-star rating indicates that Newberry County Memorial Hospital’s clinical outcomes are statistically significantly better than expected when treating the condition or performing the procedure being evaluated.

Additionally, from 2016 through 2018, patients having a Total Knee Replacement in hospitals with 5-stars have, on average, a 71.2 percent lower risk of experiencing a complication while in the hospital than if they were treated in hospitals with 1 star. Similarly, patients having a Total Knee Replacement in hospitals with 1-star are, on average, 3.5 times more likely to experience one or more complications than if they were treated in hospitals with 5 stars.*

“Consumers have many choices when it comes to choosing a hospital to receive care and the choice can be a matter of life and death,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer at Healthgrades. “The hospitals that have been recognized as 5-star rated for specific procedures and conditions stand out above the rest for the ongoing dedication and commitment to providing exceptional care to their patients.”

“The continued success of our Joint Replacement program reflects the commitment of our staff and physicians to provide the very best for our patients,” said Bruce Baldwin, Chief Executive of Newberry Hospital. “We always want to be our consumers’ first choice for healthcare.”

All of these awards are made possible with the coordinated efforts of our highly professional and devoted team. The Back on Track program that provides our patients and their cheerleader with information on what to expect before, during and after their replacement, plays a large part in the success of our joint replacement program.
Newberry County Memorial Hospital was also recognized for the following clinical achievements:
• Five-Star Recipient for Total Hip Replacement for 2 Years in a Row (2019-2020)
• Five-Star Recipient for Hip Fracture Treatment for 6 Years in a Row (2015-2020)

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide to assess hospital performance in 32 common conditions and procedures. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5-star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3-star (not statistically different from expected) and 1-star (statistically significantly worse than expected) categories. View the full list of Specialty Excellence AwardTM recipients here.

The complete Healthgrades 2020 Report to the Nation and detailed study methodology can be found at https://partners.healthgrades.com/healthgrades-qualitysolutions/healthgrades-quality-awards/.

* Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2016 through 2018 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.