Overlake Achieves Healthgrades 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award

Bellevue, Wash. – Overlake Medical Center announced today that it received the Healthgrades 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award™, defined as the Top 10% of hospitals nationwide. This award recognizes superior performance of hospitals that have prevented the occurrence of serious, potentially avoidable complications for patients during hospital stays. According to Healthgrades, Overlake is the only hospital in the Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area to receive this award in 2019.

“This recognition is an endorsement of our extraordinary team members who have been integral to our accomplishments in providing the highest quality and safest care,” said Overlake Chief Medical Officer David Knoepfler, MD. “Our commitment to the patients of our community drives each clinical quality and patient safety initiative, resulting in the unparalleled level of compassionate care that we deliver every day.” 

Among the initiatives contributing to Overlake’s recognition is the Journey to Zero Harm program launched in 2014, which reduced overall harm events by 50%. These events include falls, surgical site infections, sepsis and pressure ulcers.

Patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award had far better outcomes for a number of conditions when compared to patients treated at non-recipient hospitals, based on a study from 2015 to 2017. The study looked at patient safety indicators defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Healthgrades found that patients treated in hospitals receiving the Patient Safety Excellence Award were, as compared to patients at non-recipient hospitals*:

• 55.9% less likely to experience an accidental cut, puncture, perforation or hemorrhage during medical care.
• 50.9% less likely to experience a collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest.
• 64.4% less likely to experience pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital.
• 57% less likely to experience catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired at the hospital.

“We applaud the hospitals who have received the Healthgrades 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “Their dedication and commitment to providing safe care creates tangible results for patients.”

Nationwide, there are 460 recipients of the 2019 Patient Safety Excellence Award out of approximately 4,500 hospitals with inpatient Medicare claims from 2015 through 2017.

Healthgrades provides objective, comprehensive information about healthcare quality in America’s hospitals, evaluating hospital quality for conditions and procedures based solely on clinical outcomes. Its analysis is based on more than 45 million Medicare medical claims records for the most recent three-year time period available from nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide. Click here for more on Healthgrades’ ratings methodology.

*Statistics are calculated from Healthgrades Patient Safety Ratings and Excellence Award methodology which is based primarily on AHRQ technical specifications (Version 5e and 2018) to MedPAR data for years 2015 through 2017 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.