Silver Cross in the News

Silver Cross among top hospitals for fourth year in a row
The Herald News—March 19, 2008

JOLIET—Silver Cross Hospital has been counted among the top 100 hospitals in the nation four years in a row.

Thomson Healthcare, a company that provides research and information to help health-care organizations improve the quality and cost of care, Tuesday recognized Silver Cross as a “100 Top Hospital.”

The company reports that only 15 hospitals in the nation have been recognized as a “100 Top Hospitals” winner for the last four years in a row. Only 44 of the nation’s 5,000 hospitals have received the award four times.

This is an artist’s rendering of the proposed New Lenox Silver Cross Hospital campus. Public hearings for the move from Joliet to New Lenox will be held next month.

(Submitted art)

Silver Cross is the only Illinois hospital to win the award for the last four consecutive years.

In order to earn the award, hospitals must keep current with new standards of health care. According to Thomson, hospitals with the designation have patients with higher survival rates, who are less likely to have medical complications and are taken care of in a safe environment.

Replacement facility

Paul Pawlak, president and CEO of Silver Cross, said while the award is a testament to the dedication of the hospital’s staff, the hospital’s plan for a new facility on U.S. 6 must be achieved to continue providing the highest level of health care.

“Looking to the future, we have the responsibility to ensure that we are able to continue to serve our patients and the community with 100 Top health care for the next 100 years,” Pawlak said in a written statement. “Yet, the reality is our current facility is aging and can’t keep pace with 21st-century technology. It would be irresponsible to keep investing in facilities that will not provide our patients with the highest quality of care.”

Hospitals in the top 100 invest in new technology and services the community needs, according to Thomson.

Silver Cross Hospital is proposing a new 289-bed hospital on 70 acres at Interstate 355 and U.S. 6 in New Lenox.

Hospital officials say the new facility would house the latest medical technology and would include specialist pediatricians from Children’s Memorial Hospital.

“To maintain our Top 100 status in the future, we need to attract the best and brightest health-care professionals and accommodate the latest technology and medical innovation,” Pawlak wrote. “To do that we absolutely must build our new, state-of-the-art replacement hospital.”

Hospital performance

The Top 100 award is based on broad, hospital-wide performance, including clinical outcomes, patient safety and efficiency of care.

Hospitals do not apply or pay for the award.

The 100 Top winners rank above the top 90 percent on hospitalwide performance when compared with their national peers, said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president in the Center for Healthcare Improvement at Thomson Healthcare. Silver Cross ranked significantly higher than other, similar hospitals for its low death rate, complication rate, congestive heart failure care and surgical care.

Thomson Healthcare estimates that if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as patients at the 100 Top Hospitals, more than 120,000 additional patients would survive each year, more than 138,000 patient complications would be avoided annually and expenses would decline $6.2 billion a year.

The average patient stay would also decrease by more than half a day, the company estimates. And if all hospitals met the eight patient safety standards it measured, the company believes they would have saved $253 million and 7,914 lives.

Silver Cross has been serving the community since 1895. With more than 2,500 employees, physicians and volunteers, the not-for profit hospital has grown over the past 112 years into an extensive healthcare system with nine satellite facilities throughout the southwest suburbs.

Besides the Top 100 designation, Silver Cross has been named one of America’s Customer Friendly Hospitals by the American Alliance of Healthcare Providers and has received the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval.

“This award is a tremendous achievement for my fellow physicians, the nurses and clinical staff, the members of our board of directors and every Silver Cross employee and volunteer,” said Dr. Daniel Gutierrez, chairman of the hospital’s board and longtime Joliet-area physician. “This team is committed to providing the highest quality health care to our patients and to ensuring access to this quality health care for the poor and uninsured of this region.”

To learn more about Silver Cross, take a personal tour of the hospital or choose a doctor on staff, call 1-888-660-HEAL (4325) or visit www.silvercross.org.