Consumer Reports has found Ithaca's Cayuga Medical Center is the safest hospital in New York State.  The popular consumer magazine rated the Ithaca hospital 61 on a scale of 100, the highest rating of any hospital in the state.

The magazine evaluated six categories when determining a safety rating.  They rated avoiding infections as a result of catheters and certain surgeries, readmissions within 30 days of his or her initial discharge from the facility, communicating medications and discharge planning, CT scanning a patient more than once, complications caused by treatments or their hospital stay, and patient mortality.  Cayuga Medical Center was rated average in infections and readmissions, less than average in communication, and better than average in scanning.

“Cayuga Medical Center is honored to receive Consumer Reports’ top safety rating among New York State hospitals, but we have much more to do," says Cayuga medical Center President and CEO Rob Mackenzie.  "In 2008 our Board, our physicians, and our employees decided to make safety “job one” at CMC. Since then we’ve been learning how to develop a 'culture of safety' and put dozens of the “best practices” CR describes into our daily care."

Last year the magazine found that only 13% of 1,068 hospitals polled reported zero infections.  They highlighted 30 hospitals that reported zero central-line bloodstream infections in a minimum of 1,000 central-line days.  Cayuga Medical Center was one of the 30.

"Every day, every week, every month we reexamine our safety results and ask, 'How can we do even better?'" Mackenzie says.  "Physicians who join our staff now tell us, 'Wow--you guys are really serious about safety!'  By keeping our patients’ safety at the center of everything we do, our goal is to improve much further."

The new study found Billings Clinic in Billings, Montana was the top hospital in the study with a rating of 71.  Sacred Heart Hospital in Chicago received the worst rating of 16.  Harlem Hospital center had the lowest safety rating in New York State with a score of 20.

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