Saint Joseph's Hospital in Marshfield has been awarded Premier Healthcare's 2008 Award for Quality (AFQ) for its commitment to outstanding patient care and operational efficiency.

It is one of only 26 nationwide, out of 3,800 eligible, to receive the honor.

The only other Wisconsin facility receiving the award was the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, Madison.

Distinguished by its consideration of performance-based criteria, including clinical quality outcomes, resource utilization and clinical process indicators, this award recognizes top performers at the overall hospital level. Quality was measured by the incidence of three adverse outcomes: mortality, morbidity and complications. The efficiency index was generated using length of stay information.

"To receive this honor, Premier Healthcare communicated to us that our facility has demonstrated a combination of superior clinical outcomes, exceptional efficiency and process of care, and is included in the top 1 percent of hospitals in the nation," said Michael Schmidt, hospital president. "It is the high quality of work that our staff does every day in serving our patients that has enabled us to earn this award."

All acute care inpatient facilities in the United States that submitted data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the CMS Hospital Compare project were considered for the AFQ. Using MedPar 2006 data, Quality and Efficiency Indexes were calculated for 62 disease groups and the overall hospital level.

"The Award for Quality honors this elite group of hospitals for the high quality of patient care they offer to improve the health of their communities," said Stephanie Alexander, Senior Vice President of Premier Healthcare Informatics.