One of the award-winning LAMC surgical teams: John Howie, Chris Sanchez, Dr. Salim Amrani, David Heft, RN and  Jamie Lavery. Courtesy photo

Los Alamos Medical Center (LAMC) has been recognized as a 2014 Top Performer on Key Quality Measures® by The Joint Commission, the leading accreditor of health care organizations in the United States.

LAMC was recognized as part of The Joint Commission’s 2015 annual report “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety,” for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability measure performance for surgical services. LAMC is one of only 1,043 hospitals out of more than 3,300 eligible hospitals in the United States to achieve the 2014 Top Performer distinction.

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. The performance measures included in the recognition program including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children’s asthma, inpatient psychiatric services, stroke, venous thromboembolism, perinatal care, immunization, tobacco treatment and substance use.

“Being recognized by The Joint Commission as a Top Performer demonstrates Los Alamos Medical Center’s commitment to providing quality care close to home and validates its leadership’s, employee’s and medical staff’s efforts to enhance quality and patient safety,” said Rusty Holman, M.D., chief medical officer of LifePoint Health, of which LAMC is a part.  “We are incredibly proud of the hard work and unwavering commitment LAMC exhibits daily to our shared mission of Making Communities Healthier.”

To be a 2014 Top Performer, hospitals had to meet three performance criteria based on 2014 accountability measure data, including:

• Achieve cumulative performance of 95 percent or above across all reported accountability measures;
• Achieve performance of 95 percent or above on each and every reported accountability measure with at least 30 denominator cases; and
• Have at least one core measure set that had a composite rate of 95 percent or above, and within that measure set, achieve a performance rate of 95 percent or above on all applicable individual accountability measures.

“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 Los Alamos Medical Center for their excellent performance on the use of evidence-based interventions,” said Mark R. Chassin, MD, FACP, MPP, MPH, president and CEO, The Joint Commission.
“We understand what matters most to patients at LAMC 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 Feliciano Jiron, CEO “LAMC is proud to be named a Top Performer as it recognizes the knowledge, teamwork and dedication of our entire hospital staff.”

For more information about the Top Performer program, visit www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.