2012 HealthGrades^® Ranking
HealthGrades Names Beebe Medical Center One of America's 100 Best Hospitals for Orthopaedics, Joint Replacement and Spine Surgery.

Beebe Medical Center Also Received:

• HealthGrades 2012 Orthopedic Surgery Excellence Award™
• HealthGrades 2012 Joint Replacement Excellence Award™
• HealthGrades 2012 Spine Surgery Excellence Award™

HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings organization, ranks Beebe Medical Center as # 1 in Delaware for Overall Orthopedics and Best on the Delmarva Peninsula for Overall Orthopedics in a study released today.

HealthGrades has ranked Beebe Medical Center No. 1 in Delaware for Overall Orthopedics and Best on the Delmarva Peninsula for Overall Orthopedics for 6 years in a row — 2007 to 2012.

Beebe Medical Center received 5-star ratings for:

• Overall Orthopedic
• Joint Replacement
• Spine Surgery
• Total Knee Replacement
• Total Hip Replacement
• Hip Fracture Treatment
• Back & Neck Surgery
• Spinal Fusion Surgery

The nation's nearly 5,000 hospitals were all included in this sweeping study, which examined mortality rates and complication rates from government data from 2007, 2008 and 2009. The Thirteenth Annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality in America study is the largest annual report of its kind and analyzed patient outcomes from nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records over a three-year period.

HealthGrades' hospital ratings are the leading objective, actionable quality measures based solely on clinical performance made available to the public.

Top-performing hospitals had dramatically lower mortality rates than other hospitals, according to the study. For the 17 procedures and diagnoses for which HealthGrades analyzed mortality rates, patients at top hospitals had a 72% lower chance of dying when compared with the lowest-performing hospitals, and a 53% lower chance of dying when compared to the U.S. national average.

Beebe Medical Center offers a comprehensive orthopedic program that includes pre-surgery education classes for patients undergoing joint replacement and physical therapy programs following surgery. The Orthopedic Department also offers education for patients undergoing spinal surgery. In recent years the spinal surgery program has grown as surgeons perform innovative and minimally invasive spinal surgeries.

The hospital has a dedicated unit on the third floor with 29 patient rooms for orthopedic surgery patients that is staffed by healthcare professionals who are specially trained and educated in the care of orthopedic patients. These professionals use the latest in healthcare technologies to ensure for optimum patient recovery. The unit also has a dedicated wing for joint replacement patients.

HealthGrades Hospital Quality Ratings

HealthGrades rates hospitals independently based on data that hospitals submit to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. No hospital can opt in or out of being rated, and no hospital pays to be rated.

For 26 procedures and medical treatments, HealthGrades issues star ratings that reflect the mortality and complication rates for each category of care. Hospitals receiving a 5-star rating have mortality or complication rates that are below the national average, to a statistically significant degree. A 3-star rating means the hospital performs as expected. One-star ratings indicate the hospital's mortality or complication rates in that procedure or treatment are statistically higher than average. Because the risk profiles of patient populations at hospitals are not alike, HealthGrades risk-adjusts the data to allow for equal comparisons.

More information on today' s HealthGrades study, including the complete methodology, can be found at www.healthgrades.com.

Learn more about orthopaedic care at Beebe

To learn more, explore the orthopaedic section of our website, contact your primary care physician, or one of Beebe's orthopaedic surgeons.