Inova Fairfax Hospital Named One of America’s 50 Best Hospitals

HealthGrades Recognizes Hospital for Outstanding Clinical Performance

Falls Church, VA – (February 24, 2010) – For the fourth year in a row, Inova Fairfax Hospital has been named one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals by HealthGrades, an independent healthcare-quality ratings organization that analyzed patient outcomes at all 5,000 of the nation’s non-federal hospitals. Inova Fairfax Hospital’s outcomes places it in the nation’s top 1 percent.

According to HealthGrades, a patient admitted to an America’s 50 Best Hospital is 27 percent less likely to die, and 8 percent less likely to suffer from a major complication. Inova Fairfax Hospital is the only hospital in the Washington, DC, region to make the Top 50.

“To be named a Top 50 hospital for four years in a row is a noteworthy achievement,” said L. Reuven Pasternak, MD, CEO, Inova Fairfax Hospital Campus. “Our physicians, nurses and staff work as a team to provide a consistent level of quality of which we can all be proud.”

According to Rick May, MD, a HealthGrades vice president and one of the study’s authors, “These hospitals have leadership, operational structures and clinical teams that are capable of producing excellence in a way that others cannot.”

In addition to naming Inova Fairfax Hospital among the Top 50 hospitals, HealthGrades has also ranked the hospital number one in Virginia for cardiology services for 2009-2010 and among the top 5 percent in the nation for treatment of stroke.

To determine America’s 50 Best Hospitals, HealthGrades analyzed more than 130 million Medicare hospitalization records. Hospitals were evaluated based on the risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates across 26 procedures and treatments, from hip replacement to bypass surgery. The full report can be found 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.