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Hospital recognized for excellence in hip and knee replacement

02/03/2016
Uniontown Hospital surgeons perform a knee surgery. The hospital has been recognized for excellence in knee and hip replacements.

Uniontown Hospital has been designated as a Blue Distinction Center + for excellence in knee and hip replacement surgeries.

Blue Distinction Specialty Care is a national Blue Cross Blue Shield designation program that recognizes healthcare facilities that demonstrate expertise in delivering quality specialty care safely and effectively while maintaining cost in an efficient manner.

The goal of the program is to help consumers find both quality and value for their specialty care needs, while encouraging healthcare professionals to improve the overall quality and delivery of healthcare nationwide, and providing a credible foundation for local Blue Plans to design benefits tailored to meet employers’ own quality and cost objectives. Only those facilities that first meet nationally established, objective quality measures for Blue Distinction Centers are considered for designation as a Blue Distinction Center or a Blue Distinction Center +.

“Our orthopedic surgeons and clinical staff work diligently to provide the highest quality care and we, as a facility, work to provide that care as effectively as possible for our patients who count on us,” CEO Steve Handy said. “This distinction is just another example of our commitment to affordable, exceptional care.”

The distinction was awarded to Uniontown after a review of 341 knee and hip surgeries performed at the facility.

“I’m glad to see Uniontown Hospital finally getting recognition for their excellent work for joint replacement,” said Justin Sheba, D.O., an orthopedic surgeon at Uniontown Hospital. “Uniontown has always been a good facility with great staff so this is a deserved honor.”

The designation comes on the heels of the hospital’s announcement that the facility was recognized as a 2014 Top Performer on Key Quality Measures® by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States.

Uniontown Hospital was recognized as part of The Joint Commission’s 2015 annual report “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety,” for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance in six different categories.

Uniontown Hospital is one of only 1,043 hospitals of the more than 3,300 eligible hospitals in the United States to achieve the 2014 Top Performer distinction.

The Top Performer program recognizes hospitals for improving performance on evidence-based interventions that increase the chances of healthy outcomes for patients with certain conditions.

Performance measures in which Uniontown Hospital earned the Top Performer distinction included heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, venous thromboembolism (VTE) and stroke.

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