Speare Memorial Hospital named to Harvard Pilgrim Health Care's 2010 Honor Role

PLYMOUTH — Speare Memorial Hospital has been named to Havard Pilgrim Health Care’s 2010 Hospital Honor Roll.

The Honor Roll recognizes hospitals whose performance was among the top 25% of those measured nationally on a set of composite quality and patient experience measures. Results were reported by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on Hospital Compare and Leapfrog patient safety measures.

“The providers on Harvard Pilgrim's Honor Roll have embraced a culture of quality and are among the top performers in the nation,” said Eric H. Schultz, Harvard Pilgrim’s president and chief executive officer. “We share their commitment to bring safe, effective, and patient-centered care to the people we all serve.” Speare Memorial Hospital was one of 40 hospitals included in the fourth annual Honor Roll.

“It is wonderful to be recognized for all the work our medical community has put forth in implementing and demonstrating evidence based, best practice standards of care,” said Speare Memorial Hospital president and CEO Michelle McEwen, FACHE. “This recognition also reinforces ‘the Speare experience’: a healthcare team devoted to providing our patients with the best clinical care known to provide better outcomes.”

Harvard Pilgrim is a not-for-profit health plan that provides a variety of benefit options and funding arrangements to more than one million members in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Hospitals named to the annual Honor Roll were evaluated on processes for caring for patients with heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, and those having surgery. The results of patient surveys measuring patient hospital experiences were included. Leapfrog patient safety measures included results hospitals achieved in preventing medical errors, maintaining appropriate intensive care unit staffing, taking steps to avoid harm, and reducing in-hospital injuries.

With respect to the delivery of evidence-based medicine, Speare Memorial Hospital performed in the top 10 percent of all critical access hospital in New Hampshire including for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2010. Speare is providing a level of care higher than both the state and national averages for all four measures.

“These results are attributed to the commitment and diligence of our physicians, nurses respiratory therapists and other clinical staff in providing consistent, patient-centered care,” explained Kofi Cash, MS, CHPQ, director of quality and safety at Speare Memorial Hospital. “Speare’s performance serves as a benchmark for others to emulate.”

Speare Memorial Hospital is a 24-hour, acute care, non-profit community hospital and health care provider serving Plymouth and the communities of central New Hampshire for more than a century. For more information, visit www.spearehospital.com.