News Release

AWARDS, ACCREDITATIONS HIGHLIGHT HOSPITAL’S ACHIEVEMENTS

Feb. 28, 2006 — Several hospital awards and accreditations and the addition of UPMC Northwest to the UPMC Cancer Centers network highlighted the hospital’s achievements during 2005.

100 Top Hospitals Award

UPMC Northwest earned its fourth straight Solucient 100 Top Hospitals award last year for superior patient care, operational and financial performance. And this time there was an added distinction: for being one of the most consistent winners of this award, UPMC Northwest made Solucient’s Best of the Benchmark Hospitals list, limited exclusively to the “best of the best” hospitals that have achieved 100 Top Hospitals awards four or more times.

		UPMC Northwest earned a place on two top 100 hospital lists again in 2005 while also achieving reaccreditation of its radiation oncology and hospital services.

The Best of the Benchmark Hospitals “form a very select group. Their performance consistency provides their communities with extremely reliable care. These are hospitals that have successfully instilled performance improvement in all employees, physicians and managers. The beneficiaries are the patients they serve and their families,” Solucient said.

“We thought it was quite an achievement to get this award once, but to do it four times, and then to earn special recognition as one of the ‘best of the best’ on top of that, is a great accomplishment for the hospital and our staff,” said UPMC Northwest President Neil Todhunter.

UPMC Northwest also earned a Solucient Performance Improvement Leaders Award last year for senior management and board leadership excellence.

Community Value Index (CVI) Top 100

UPMC Northwest earned a place for the second straight year on this honor roll of 100 hospitals nationwide that have the most value to their communities. Hospitals provide value when they are financially viable, reinvest in their facilities, maintain a low cost structure, and have reasonable charges, says Cleverley & Associates, a health care financial strategies company that named UPMC Northwest to its second CVI Top 100 list.

“We put a lot of emphasis on managing our costs and charging reasonable fees for our services, and this recognition shows that we’re taking the right approach and that patients benefit from it,” Todhunter said.

UPMC Northwest was one of only five Pennsylvania hospitals to make the list, and one of only 20 of its size nationwide to do so.

Radiation Oncology Accreditation

UPMC Cancer Center at UPMC Northwest earned reaccreditation in 2005 from the American College of Radiation Oncology (ACRO).
“It is very important to have an outside, national accrediting board (ACRO) give its stamp of approval to our program, and to have our radiation therapy services acknowledged this way,” said radiation oncologist Joanne Dragun, MD.
UPMC Northwest is the only northwestern Pennsylvania hospital to hold ACRO accreditation of its radiation oncology program, and one of a select group of hospitals statewide to be accredited both by ACRO and the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer.

Hospital Accreditation

After recording its best performance ever in an accreditation survey, UPMC Northwest earned reaccreditation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

UPMC Northwest demonstrated compliance with JCAHO’s national standards for quality and safety, and JCAHO extended the hospital accreditation through December 2008.
JCAHO specifically cited UPMC Northwest for excellence in several areas including its
Safety Alerts For Everything (SAFE) patient/visitor/staff safety initiative and other programs in which the hospital uses information that it collects to improve quality and safety. “The surveyors had high praise for our ability to transform data into measurable improvements resulting in more effective and safe care for our patients,” said Melinda Remley, UPMC Northwest’s vice president of patient management services. “They also were very complimentary of our hospital staff and medical staff commitment to provide high quality care, and our teamwork.”

UPMC Cancer Centers

UPMC Cancer Center at UPMC Northwest joined the UPMC Cancer Centers network in 2005, making it part of one of the nation’s top cancer care programs as ranked by U.S. News & World Report. Radiation oncologists Joanne Dragun, MD, and Nicholas Gramatovici, MD, and hematologist/oncologist Nicholas Cook, MD, staff the cancer center.

Additional Accreditations

UPMC Northwest’s laboratory was reaccredited in 2005 by the College of American Pathologists, and the hospital’s Continuing Medical Education program earned reaccreditation from the Pennsylvania Medical Society.

RN Back-to-School Program

Some 22 nurses graduated from this innovative associate degree program that UPMC Northwest developed in partnership with Clarion University’s Venango Campus, and 19 of them joined the hospital staff in June (three others became nursing staff members at UPMC Northwest’s Visiting Nurses Association of Venango County and its Sugar Creek Station skilled nursing and rehabilitation center).

Hurricane Katrina

The Erie Regional Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) deployed UPMC Northwest staff members Julie Bowers, Judy Holben, George Klinzing and Paula McElhaney to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina, and hospital staff members generously supported hurricane relief efforts.

VA Clinic

A UPMC Northwest-Veterans Administration partnership resulted in the opening of the Venango County Veterans Clinic at the hospital’s Oil City campus. The clinic allows Venango County veterans to obtain outpatient health care services locally instead of traveling to VA hospitals in Butler or Erie.
Central Blood Bank – UPMC Northwest recently joined forces with Central Blood Bank, which will become the hospital’s sole provider of blood and blood products effective July 1. UPMC Northwest no longer will receive its blood supply from the American Red Cross after June 30, but will continue to support and collaborate with the Red Cross on other services including disaster relief and emergency preparedness.

UPMC Northwest Foundation: Annual Appeal

The foundation’s “Branching Out” annual appeal concluded Oct. 31, 2005, and the remaining trees that donors purchased during this campaign to landscape the new hospital site will be planted in the spring. Meanwhile, the foundation’s new appeal is raising funds to benefit the hospital’s Family Birthing Center: gifts will be used to acquire a state-of-the-art General Electric LOGIQ 3 ultrasound system that provides essential information to obstetricians and birthing center staff members when mothers give birth.