Mercy Cedar Rapids Receives Two Quality Recognitions

Mercy Cedar Rapids is announcing two recognitions it received prior to COVID-19. Both acknowledgments are for quality and service performance. 

First, Mercy received a five-star quality rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The national ratings are designated as one through five stars, with five being the highest and three being the national average score.

Of the more than 4,500 hospitals evaluated by CMS, only 407, or about nine percent, received five-star ratings. 

CMS evaluates hospitals on 57 quality measures across seven categories to calculate the star rating. The categories include patient experience, safety of care, effectiveness of care, efficient use of medical imaging, mortality, readmissions and timeliness of care. The rankings are aimed at giving consumers another tool as they make decisions about their healthcare.

For more information about the CMS Hospital Compare ratings, visit www.medicare.gov.

Mercy’s open-heart program rated among most elite in the nation

Additionally, the open-heart program at Mercy’s Heart Center has earned a distinguished, three-star rating in overall performance from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its patient care and outcomes in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) from July 2018 to June 2019. This distinction reflects exemplary results in the following areas: absence of major mortality and morbidity; use of internal mammary artery harvest; and receipt of required perioperative medications. Only about seven percent of open-heart programs in the U.S. earn this STS three-star distinction.

The STS rating, which denotes the highest category of quality and is the highest rating available, places Mercy among the most elite heart surgery centers in the U.S. and Canada.

The star rating is calculated by using a combination of quality measures submitted by the hospital to the STS Adult Cardiac Surgery Database (ACSD).