Griffin Hospital recently announced it has been recognized by the Premier health care alliance as a winner of the Premier Award for Quality. Griffin is one of 23 hospital winners and three health care systems nationwide putting it in the top 1 percent of the nation’s hospitals and the only Connecticut hospital to receive the award.
There were 3,788 hospitals and 346 health care systems that were eligible to receive the AFQ. The award recognizes leading healthcare organizations that efficiently provide outstanding patient care and consistently set the standard in clinical excellence.
The award’s performance-based criteria including clinical quality outcomes, resource utilization, and clinical process indicators measures top performers at the overall hospital level.
“Griffin not only strives to exceed patient expectations by providing an exceptional patient experience, but also superior clinical outcomes and a strong emphasis on patient safety and privacy,” said Patrick Charmel, Griffin President. “This is one of a number of quality, value and patient experience awards Griffin has received from the various national organizations that measure and monitor hospital performance. These awards recognize the exemplary care and service that our talented and dedicated staff delivers to each and every patient we serve.”
“The AFQ honors the efforts of industry leaders to provide high quality care,” said Susan DeVore, Premier President and CEO. “As we celebrate the achievements of these facilities, the alliance is helping to further improve the health of communities across the nation.”
All acute care inpatient facilities in the United States that submitted data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the CMS Hospital Compare project were considered for the AFQ.
Quality was measured by the incidence of three adverse outcomes: mortality, morbidity and complications, which are combined into a single Quality Index.
The efficiency index was generated using length of stay to proxy for resource utilization.
??? I am confused with these awards which are given to this hospital ???
It was a short time ago when I and my child were in a car accident with life threatening injuries.
We are from the Valley and live close by to Griffin as well as many family members.
I requested transport to Griffin for the two of us which was 4 minutes from the accident scene and the medical technician aboard the ambulance told me it was not possible this evening due to our injuries.
I only thought it was a joke at the time but it also holds true for many other trauma patients from the past.
There are doctors that feel confident about their abilities in Griffin but it is not their call.
Having a full medical insurance behind me I can only say they were going to get paid an attractive sum but later learned the liability is something they do not want to get involved in. Griffin operates with a reduced staff level including not having the correct trauma doctors on hand thus causing a logistic nightmare and a possible loss of life for the locally injured. Yes…this also causes a higher ambulance ride cost to the patient.
I as well as many who experienced this denial for care by Griffin could easily say …..if you are going to be involved in emergency services or health care itself, please operate like a hospital with competence and confidence and get your staff up to full trauma capacity like your competition. Technology and society have been demanding this in the real world for a long time now as we face daily disasters.
I pray nothing serious happens to my family now. Close call 3 months ago….my husband cut his hand in the garage and drove himself to YALE for 16 stitches. I call that a social stigma painted by the existence of Griffin.