St. Elizabeth Edgewood announced today that its superior clinical quality has placed it among an elite group of U.S. hospitals: Healthgrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals. This is St. Elizabeth Edgewood’s seventh straight year to receive this award.

To be recognized with this distinction, hospitals must have had risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates that were in the best top 5% in the nation for the most consecutive years. On average, patients treated at America’s 50 Best Hospitals had a nearly 30% lower risk of death.

“Our associates and physicians are at the core of our success. They are the reason why we have such a strong reputation for service and patient care,” said John S. Dubis, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer. “What makes us particularly proud of the Healthgrades recognition is that it is one of the only national rankings that rates hospitals based solely on actual clinical outcomes. This acknowledgement means that patients at St. Elizabeth have better outcomes than more than 4,500 other hospitals in the country.”

To determine America’s 50 Best Hospitals, Healthgrades analyzed more than 150 million Medicare hospitalization records from every non-federal hospital in the nation. Hospitals must meet minimum thresholds in terms of patient volumes, quality ratings and the range of services provided. Specifically, hospitals were evaluated based on the risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates across 26 procedures and treatments, from hip replacement to bypass surgery.

From 2008 through 2010, if all U.S. hospitals had performed at the level of A50B hospitals, 179,593 Medicare deaths may have been prevented.

“As our nation seeks to elevate the quality of care at all hospitals, these elite facilities provide a roadmap for success,” said Dr. Arshad Rahim, Healthgrades Director of Accelerated Clinical Excellence. “Consumers increasingly are demanding greater transparency and quality when selecting healthcare providers. These hospitals are delivering. We commend them for their dedication to excellence in patient care.

In addition, Healthgrades ranks St. Elizabeth among the top 1% of the nation for overall clinical excellence, and St. Elizabeth Edgewood is the only hospital in Kentucky to receive this distinction. St. Elizabeth is also recognized as a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Service, and St. Elizabeth Edgewood was recognized as one of Healthgrades America’s 100 Best Hospitals for Cardiac Surgery in 2013, as well as Pulmonary Care.

“We are constantly looking for innovative ways to expand and enhance the services we offer from our da Vinci surgical robots to the installation of the TrueBeam linear accelerator at our Cancer Care Center to our recent affiliation as a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network,” John Dubis said. ”Our number one focus is the patient and delivering the best quality care possible is at the forefront of everything we do.”