Athens' Hospitals Honored for Providing Great Care

Both and have been named to the Georgia Hospital Association’s (GHA) Partnership for Health and Accountability (PHA) Quality Honor Roll. They are among the 61 institutions in the Presidential category, which is one of the highest possible ratings.

The honor roll is based on clinical data given to the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Service (CMS), which administers Medicare and Medicaid programs. The data were collected from January 2010 to December 2010.

Joseph Park, president of the Georgia Hospital Association, said the recognition “further underscores the commitment” of the staffs of each hospital to ensure “that every patient receives the best, most effective health care possible.”

Hospitals are required to give data to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Service. The information is evaluated to learn if the patient received the right care at the right time.

For example, taking aspirin—before or immediately arriving at the hospital and before leaving--is a recommended treatment to help prevent a heart. A suggested treatment for pneumonia is to give an antibiotic within four hours of a patient’s arrival. If a hospital follows these clinical practices, the outcome is usually better.

Don McKenna, St. Mary's President and CEO, and James Thaw, president and chief executive officer of Athens Regional Health Services, said that their hospitals' mission is "to ensure that each of our patients receives the right care at the right time, and this recognition validates this."