Sacred Heart Hospital has been recognized as a "Top Performer on Key Quality Measures" by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States.

Sacred Heart Hospital was recognized as part of The Joint Commission's 2014 annual report "America's Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety" for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance in pneumonia, surgical care and stroke.

Sacred Heart Hospital is one of 1,224 hospitals in the United States to achieve the 2013 "Top Performer" distinction.

"Sacred Heart Hospital is proud to be named a "Top Performer" as it recognizes the knowledge, teamwork and dedication of our entire hospital staff," said John Nespoli, President and CEO, Sacred Heart Hospital.

The "Top Performer" program recognizes hospitals for improving performance on evidence-based interventions that increase the chances of healthy outcomes for patients with certain conditions. This is the second year Sacred Heart Hospital has been recognized as a "Top Performer."

"We understand what matters most to patients at Sacred Heart Hospital is the quality and safety of the care they receive. That is why we have made it a top priority to improve positive patient outcomes through evidence-based care processes," said Joanne Lee, Director of Quality and Case Management at Sacred Heart Hospital.

Sacred Heart Hospital was recognized in 2012 for its performance on accountability measure data for heart attack, pneumonia and surgical care. Sacred Heart Hospital is one of only 712 hospitals to achieve the "Top Performer" distinction for the past two consecutive years.

"Delivering the right treatment in the right way at the right time is a cornerstone of high-quality health care. I commend the efforts of Sacred Heart Hospital for their excellent performance on the use of evidence-based interventions," said Mark R. Chassin, M.D., FACP, M.P.P., M.P.H., president and CEO, The Joint Commission.

To be a "Top Performer," hospitals had to meet three performance criteria based on 2013 accountability measure data, including:

Achieving cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures;

Achieving performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure where there were at least 30 denominator cases, and

Having at least one core measure set that had a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and (within that measure set) all applicable individual accountability measures had a performance rate of 95 percent or above.