VALDOSTA, GA – South Georgia Medical Center and its Smith Northview Campus released today that it has been recognized by Healthgrades as one of America’s 100 Best hospitals for spine care and prostate surgery. This is the third year of recognition for the Valdosta-based Spine Care Center and the first year Healthgrades has recognized the Prostate Surgery category.

The Spine Care Center affiliated spine surgeons John Eric Gee, MD; James Goss, DO; Hitham Khalil, MD and Edward Mark, Jr., MD gratuitously accepted the award from Healthgrades Representative Bill Stehnee on Wednesday.

“This recognition strongly validates the daily quest for excellence that is set by the surgeons and clinical staff who work in our hospitals,” said Randy Sauls, CEO of South Georgia Medical Center. “Clinical quality is only achieved when physician leaders and clinical professionals become a seamless team with common goals and likeminded vision. I am proud of everyone’s involvement and support to make our spine program worthy of this recognition.”

Healthgrades, the leading online resource that helps consumers search, compare and connect with physicians and hospitals, evaluated nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 31 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions and identified the 100 best hospitals within each procedure.

Urological Surgeons Mike Chiang, Jacek Sosnowski and David Sule accepted the award for Prostate Surgery excellence commending their support staff and nurses for making the recognition attainable. “These physicians are to be applauded for their exemplary dedication to surgical excellence and overall high quality of patient care.” “To be recognized as one of America’s 100 Best hospitals for prostate care is truly an honor and our organization could not be more pleased,” said Randy Sauls, CEO of South Georgia Medical Center.

The achievement is part of findings released in American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2014: Healthgrades Report to the Nation, which demonstrates how clinical performance differs dramatically between hospitals and the impact that this variation may have on health outcomes. For example, from 2010-2012, if all hospitals as a group, performed similarly to hospitals receiving 5-stars as a group, on average 234,252 lives could potentially have been saved and 157,418 complications could potentially have been avoided. A 5-star rating indicates that SGMC’s clinical outcomes are better than expected when treating the condition or conducting the procedure being evaluated.

According to Evan Marks, EVP Informatics and Strategy, Healthgrades, “Hospitals earn this distinction by providing better than expected outcomes for specific conditions and procedures. When selecting physicians associated with a hospital that has achieved this recognition, consumers can expect a commitment to exceptional clinical quality care.”

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 40 million Medicare-patient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide, assessing hospital performance relative to each of 31 common conditions and procedures. Healthgrades awards hospitals quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5 star (statistically better than expected), 3 star (statistically as expected) and 1 star (statistically worse than expected) categories. Detailed performance information, such as cohort-specific outcomes data and quality achievements for individual hospitals may be found atwww.healthgrades.com/find-a-hospital.

Source: SGMC Press Release