COVINGTON, Louisiana – St. Tammany Health System has achieved a five-star overall rating from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in its 2021 rankings, reflecting how well STHS performs treating heart attacks and pneumonia, readmission rates and safety of patient care.
It is one of only six hospitals in Louisiana to earn the five-star ranking and the only one in the Greater New Orleans metro area, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.
Measures taken into consideration for the CMS rating system include timely and effective care, complications and mortality, unplanned hospital care, and value of care.
The timely and effective care measures show how often or how quickly STHS provides care that research shows gets the best results for patients with certain conditions, and how hospitals use outpatient medical imaging tests (such as CT or MRI). This information can help patients compare which hospitals give recommended care most often as part of the overall care they provide to patients.
Complications and mortality measures examines STHS performance of best practices related to hospital care. Unplanned hospital visits are another measure where quality and safety can be measured. The 5-star ranking from CMS examines how STHS performed at delivering high quality care that kept patients from needing to return to the hospital for the same issue.
Value is a concern for CMS and for all patients seeking care in hospitals. The CMS ranking related to value examines STHS’s Medicare spend per beneficiary (whether Medicare spends more, less or about the same on an episode at STHS compared to all other inpatient facilities in the US).
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The heartbeat of its community, St. Tammany Health System cares for patients and families with excellence, compassion and teamwork. It is recognized for quality, safety and service excellence by CareChex, Leapfrog, Healthgrades, Hospital Compare, Women’s Choice and US News & World Report. St. Tammany Parish Hospital Service District No. 1 and Ochsner Health work together in partnership to improve the community’s health and quality of life. Together, west St. Tammany’s top two independent health leaders represent the most complete system of care, aligning behind the common goals of improving access, expanding specialty care and making care affordable. Under their agreement, each retains its autonomy; neither manages nor owns the other. Self-supporting, not-for-profit STHS is A+ rated by Fitch and receives no tax funding. More at StTammany.health