Silver Cross earns 5-Star rating from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awarded Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox a five-star rating, the highest score hospitals can receive.

It’s not the first time Silver Cross has received this rating, Ruth Colby, president and chief executive officer of Silver Cross Hospital, said.

“I think that demonstrates our consistency and standardizing a very, very high level of care.”

The rating was announced July 26 by medicare.gov/care-compare.

Silver Cross is the only hospital in Will County and Grundy County to earn five stars and one of only 24 in Illinois. Edward Hospital in Naperville also received an overall rating of five stars.

“I just really want to emphasize how proud I am of the team here. They’re an amazing group of people. Health care is about people taking care of people.”

—  Ruth Colby, president and chief executive officer of Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox

By contrast, Ascension Saint Joseph – Joliet (listed on the site as Presence Saint Joseph Medical) earned an over all rating of two stars. Morris Hospital received an overall rating of three stars. UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Bolingbrook received an overall rating of four stars.

What makes a good hospital?

CMS publicly launched this hospital rating system to help consumers evaluate “safety, quality and patient experiences” at more than 4,000 hospitals in the U.S., according to a news release from Silver Cross, announcing the rating.

“The overall summary rating is based on a cumulative score of dozens of measures across five different areas, including mortality, safety of care, readmission, patient experience and timely and effective care,” Silver Cross said. “Silver Cross performed well above the national average in the categories of safety of patient care, mortality and patient experience.”

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Colby said this rating is important, in her opinion, because the results are based on metrics and data, not opinionated surveys. Silver Cross also is compared to hospitals across the U.S., not just hospitals of similar size.

The rating is useful because it shows opportunities for improvement. For instance, Silver Cross’ rate of readmission after discharge from the hospital is 15.3%, which is similar to the national result of 14.6%.

But’s it’s also not zero, Colby said.

“We always want to improve; we’re always raising the bar. That’s something we’re obsessed with at Silver Cross,” Colby said.

How can hospitals improve?

For instance, patients spend an average of 209 minutes in the Silver Cross emergency department. Nationally, patients spend 191 minutes. In Illinois, the average is 242 minutes.

Colby said Silver Cross averages 77,000 patient visits a year if the emergency department at its Homer Glen facility is included. So Silver Cross is always looking at reducing wait time in the emergency department, Colby said.

Questions Silver Cross asks include, “Can we expedite the triage process, expedite taking care of people who, perhaps, don’t need to be there?” Colby said. Perhaps Silver Cross can educate the community about when to see their primary care physician versus urgent care as an alternate to the emergency room.

Silver Cross has two urgent cares, one in Joliet and one in Mokena.

“Many people still use the emergency room for primary care. That’s really not what it’s there for,” Colby said. “It’s for when you’re really, really sick, when you can’t breathe or have chest pain or a possibility of stroke.”

In addition, the medicare.gov/care-compare site has patient checklists, how to file a complaint about quality of care and even legal notices of facility terminations, which remain on the site for six months.

Silver Cross Hospital has earned 17 Straight A’s for Safety by the Leapfrog Group and 10 times was named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals, Silver Cross said.

“I just really want to emphasize how proud I am of the team here. They’re an amazing group of people,” Colby said. “Health care is about people taking care of people. It’s not a bunch of statistics, although we’re measured by the outcomes and financial metrics. [Health care] is really about people taking care of people, and I think the people who work here are absolutely the finest.”