Inova Fairfax Hospital Ranked Best in Virginia for Cardiology, Stroke Services, GI Medical Treatment

Inova Fairfax Only Hospital in Washington Region With Five-Star Rating in Valve Surgery

Falls Church, VA – (October 14, 2008) – Inova Fairfax Hospital has been ranked the best in Virginia for cardiology services, stroke services and GI medical treatment, by HealthGrades, a leading independent healthcare ratings company.  In addition, Inova Fairfax Hospital is the only hospital in the Washington, DC, area with a five-star rating in Valve Surgery and one of only two hospitals with the highest ratings possible for heart failure in 2009. These findings were included in the eleventh annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America Study, a comprehensive study analyzing more than 41 million Medicare hospitalization records from 2005 to 2007 at the nation’s 5,000 non-federal hospitals.

In addition to these clinical achievements, Inova Fairfax Hospital has achieved these state-wide and national clinical distinctions:

• Ranked Best in Virginia for Treatment of Stroke – two years in a row (2008 & 2009)
• Ranked Among the Top 5% in the Nation for Treatment of Stroke – six years in a row (2003 – 2009)
• Ranked Among the top 10 Hospitals in Virginia for Overall Cardiac Services – Seven Years in a Row
• Ranked Among the top 10 Hospitals in Virginia for Cardiac Surgery – Five Years in a Row
• Ranked Among the Top 10% in the Nation for Gastrointestinal Care
• Ranked Best in Virginia for GI Medical Treatment – Three out of the last Four Years
• Ranked Among the Top 10 Hospital in Virginia for GI Services – Three Year Star Change Report

According to the HealthGrades study, if all hospitals performed at the level of five-star rated hospitals, more than 237,000 Medicare deaths could potentially have been prevented over the three years studied. More than half of those preventable deaths were associated with four conditions: sepsis, pneumonia, heart failure and respiratory failure.

While overall death rates declined from 2005 to 2007, the nation’s best-performing hospitals were able to reduce preventable deaths at a much faster rate than poor-performing hospitals, resulting in large state, regional and hospital-to-hospital variations in the quality of patient care, the study found. The full list of HealthGrades’s 2009 quality ratings is available at www.healthgrades.com.

Inova Health System is a not-for-profit healthcare system based in Northern Virginia that consists of hospitals and other health services, including emergency- and urgent-care centers, home care, nursing homes, mental health and blood donor services, and wellness classes. Governed by a voluntary board of community members, Inova’s mission is to improve the health of the diverse community it serves through excellence in patient care, education and research. Inova provides a healthy environment for its patients, families, visitors, staff and physicians by prohibiting tobacco use on its campuses.