Vim & Vigor - Spring 2013 - Community Healthcare - (Page 56)

Act Fast! Award goes to lifesaving team BY ANGELA MOORE WHEN EMERGENCY STRIKES Emergency care is something most people do not think about until an emergency occurs. For life-threatening situations, the closest hospital is the ﬁrst option because time is of the essence. But when a choice is possible, knowing the best hospital ahead of time can mean the difference between life and death. St. Catherine Hospital recently earned the 2012 Emergency Medicine Excellence Award™ from Healthgrades®, a leading provider of comprehensive information designed to help consumers make an informed decision about their choices in healthcare, physicians or hospitals. 56 SPRING 2 013 “I owe my wonderful care to the nursing staff who were really on the ball and the doctors who gave me undivided attention,” Guzman says. A LOOK AT THE NUMBERS More than 123.8 million people in the United States will make that fateful trip to the emergency department of hospitals in their community. Thirteen percent will end up being admitted into the hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Healthgrades has found clear differences in how emergency visits play out in the best-performing hospitals versus all other hospitals. The Healthgrades Emergency Medicine Excellence Award is based on the number of in-hospital deaths among patients admitted through the emergency department. After assessing 4,783 short-term acute care hospitals, only 263 hospitals qualiﬁed to receive the Emergency Medicine Excellence Award. They had the lowest risk-adjusted mortality across the top diagnoses in the study, low enough to place them among the top 5 percent of U.S. hospitals. East Chicago resident Lucy Guzman is just one example of how the Emergency department at St. Catherine Hospital provides excellence in emergency care. ONLINE W hen everyone in the Guzman household was sick with the ﬂu and Lucy woke up not feeling well, she assumed she, too, had the ﬂu. It turned out to be a heart attack. Because Lucy Guzman was surrounded by highly trained, skilled professionals—from East Chicago’s dispatchers and EMTs to St. Catherine Hospital’s Emergency department and cath lab staff—who knew what to do and when to do it, she survived to tell her story. “I ended up with a stent in my heart,” she says. “It’s not something you’d ever expect, but when you feel sick, don’t wait—get to the hospital immediately.” Guzman and her family live near the East Chicago ﬁ re station, and family members who suspected something else was happening, called 911 right away. “The EMTs were there almost immediately and began to give me medications; then they called ahead to St. Catherine,” says Guzman. “They were waiting for me at the hospital. When I got there, doctors and nurses began all kinds of tests.” Be Prepared Do you know where to go in case of emergency? Visit www.comhs.org/stcatherine to learn more about the services offered at St. Catherine Hospital. http://www.comhs.org/stcatherine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Spring 2013 - Community Healthcare

Vim & Vigor - Spring 2013 - Community Healthcare
Community Message
Community Briefs
Winner’s Circle
No Place Like Home
Sowing the Seeds of Good Health
Sowing the Seeds of Good Health
You’re the Star
Heart-to-Heart
Lighten Up!
Have No Fear
Work It!
Diane Keaton
What Are the Chances?
9 Symptoms Never to Ignore
When Allergies Attack
Virtual Health
SPOTLIGHT ON: St. Catherine Hospital
SPOTLIGHT ON: Community Hospital
SPOTLIGHT ON: St. Mary Medical Center
Care You Can Count On
Act Fast!

Vim & Vigor - Spring 2013 - Community Healthcare