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Annual Highlights

Mercy Medical Center—Sioux City has earned a place among the nation’s best hospitals for clinical excellence.

 

During the last decade, the Sioux City region’s busiest hospital has been the recipient of national honors in several different clinical areas, and is now well known for a long series of progressive medical firsts in the region.

 

Bob Peebles, Mercy’s president and chief executive officer, credits the hospital’s associates, highly skilled physicians, volunteers, and its Faith-based foundation for Mercy’s success as the leading provider of health care in Siouxland. “Mercy is dedicated to Faith-Inspired Service and Healing,” he explained.  “We strive to become Siouxland residents’ most trusted health partner for life by staying true to the mission and values of our founders, Sister Catherine McAuley and the Sisters of Mercy. Within that context, Mercy associates, our board of directors, and our physician partners also demonstrate great vision and determination in tapping the latest innovations and advances in medicine. As a result, we have been blessed to realize many accomplishments and honors.”

 

2009 in Review
 

During 2009, Mercy’s reputation as a provider of world-class health care became even more prominent.

 

Mercy Medical Center is ranked among the top 5% of the nation’s hospitals for women’s health, according to a clinical study released last summer by HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization.   The medical center’s exemplary patient outcomes for key women’s services also qualified it to receive HealthGrades’ 2009/2010 Women’s Health Excellence Award.   Mercy was the only area healthcare provider to receive the national award. 

 

For the sixth year in a row, HealthGrades also honored Mercy with a national clinical excellence award for vascular surgery.  According to the latest HealthGrades study, Mercy Medical Center ranks among the top 5% of the nation’s hospitals for vascular surgery.  The report gives Mercy five-star ratings for overall vascular surgery, carotid endarterectomy procedures, and peripheral vascular bypass surgery.

 

Also last year, Mercy was again awarded national certification as an advanced primary stroke center by the Joint Commission, the nation’s oldest and largest standards-setting and accrediting body in health care.  Mercy is the only hospital in the Siouxland region to have earned JCAHO’s prominent certification as a stroke center.

 

The American Stroke Association also awarded Mercy Medical Center with its Get With The Guidelines–Stroke (GWTG–Stroke) Gold Performance Achievement Award in 2009.  The honor recognizes Mercy’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.

 

Mercy was awarded the American College of Cardiology Foundation’s NCDR ACTION Registry–GWTG Gold Performance Achievement Award for 2009 – one of only 121 hospitals nationwide and the only area hospital to earn the honor. The award recognizes Mercy’s commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients, and signifies that Mercy has reached an aggressive goal of treating coronary artery disease patients with 85 percent compliance to core standard levels of care outlined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.

 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) presented Mercy with a Medal of Honor recognizing the hospital for its efforts in organ donation.  Mercy earned the recognition for achieving and sustaining a donation rate of 75% or more of eligible donors.

 

In the spring of 2009, Mercy Home Care was named to the HomeCare Elite, a compilation of the most successful Medicare-certified home health care providers in the United States. This annual review identifies exemplary home health agencies, ranked by an analysis of performance measures in quality outcomes, quality improvement and financial performance.

 

Mercy Medical Center is one of just 24 hospitals in the United States to have earned the prestigious accreditation of the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) for perioperative transfusion services.   Mercy is also the only medical facility in Iowa, Nebraska or South Dakota to hold the distinction. The perioperative process allows blood lost by the patient during surgery to be processed, recycled and returned to the patient’s body.  The process minimizes the amount of donor blood that is utilized, which makes it safer for the patient and also preserves more of the blood supply for those who need it.