Quality Ratings

Measuring Quality to Ensure Best-Care Practices for North Suburban Medical Center Patients

Measuring and tracking quality is just one of the ways North Suburban Medical Center delivers high-quality medical care. Each day, our Quality Department monitors and evaluates the hospital’s performance to ensure best-care practices are always demonstrated and patient safety is always optimized.

Core Measures

One specific area of monitoring is called — Core Measures. Core Measures were established in 2002 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. These measures show how often hospitals give the recommended treatments known to get the best results for patients with certain medical condition or surgical procedures.

We are proud to share the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ 3rd quarter 2011 report of North Suburban’s quality efforts related to heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia care, as well as adherence to evidence-based guidelines related to surgical care.

It wouldn't be possible to maintain these high scores without the efforts of our doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals. Because of them, we are able to provide the highest levels of care to the communities we serve.

3rd Quarter 2011 Core Measures Report

Heart Attack Core Measures – 100% Achievement Score

• Percent of Patients Given Aspirin at Arrival
• Percent of Patients Given Aspirin at Discharge
• Percent of Heart Attack Patients Given ACE Inhibitor or ARB for Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction
• Percent of Patients Given Smoking Cessation Advice/Counseling
• Percent of Patients Given Beta Blocker at Discharge
• Percent of Patients Given PCI Within 90 Minutes Of Arrival

Heart Failure Core Measures – 100% Achievement Score

• Percent of Patients Given Discharge Instructions
• LVF Assessment
• Percent of Patients Given ACE Inhibitor or ARB for Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction
• Percent of Patients Given Smoking Cessation Advice/Counseling

Pneumonia Care Core Measures – 100% Achievement Score

• Oxygenation Assessment
• Percent of Pneumonia Patients Assessed and Given Pneumococcal Vaccination
• Percent of Patients Whose Initial Emergency Room Blood Culture was Performed Prior to Administration of the First Hospital Dose of Antibiotics
• Percent of Patients Given Smoking Cessation Advice/Counseling
• Antibiotics Given within 6 Hours
• Percent of Patients Given the Most Appropriate Initial Antibiotics
• Percent of Pneumonia Patients Assessed and Given Influenza Vaccination

Surgical Infection Prevention Core Measures – 99.70% Achievement Score

• Prophylactic antibiotic received within one hour prior to surgical incision
• Prophylactic antibiotic selection for surgical patients
• Prophylactic antibiotics discontinued within 24 hours after surgery end time (48 hours for cardiac patients)
• Cardiac surgery patients with controlled 6 a.m. postoperative serum glucose
• Surgery patients with appropriate hair removal
• Surgery patients with recommended venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis ordered
• Surgery patients who received appropriate venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis within 24 hours prior to surgery to 24 hours after surgery