Palomar Health named top 5% in nation for surgical care

SAN DIEGO – Palomar Medical Center Escondido is among the top 5% in the nation for Surgical Care and a recipient of the Surgical Care Excellence Award, according to new analysis by Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems. Every year, Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance at nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide for 31 of the most common inpatient procedures and conditions.*

Healthgrades Specialty Excellence Awards recognize hospitals with superior performance in specific specialty lines and specialty focus areas. For example, from 2018-2020, patients treated at hospitals receiving the Surgical Care Specialty Excellence Award have, on average, a 29.8% lower risk of experiencing a complication or dying while in the hospital than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award.* Additionally, from 2018-2020, patients treated at hospitals which did not receive the Surgical Care Specialty Excellence Award are, on average, 1.43 times more likely to experience one or more complications or die in the hospital than if they were treated at hospitals that did receive the award.*

“We want to provide information to make finding a healthcare specialist an easier experience for consumers. Patients can feel confident knowing that hospitals that are recognized for their performance in Surgical Care provide high-quality care and superior outcomes,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Data Science, Healthgrades.

“Patients have many healthcare providers to choose from in this region,” said Palomar Health Chief Medical Officer Omar Khawaja, MD. “This independent analysis shows it’s worth driving a little further to Palomar Medical Center Escondido for your surgical care, especially when your quality of life depends on it.”

Named by Newsweek as one of the World’s Best Hospitals in 2021, Palomar Health is anchored by two medical center campuses which provide an array of acute care services, obstetrics, rehabilitation, behavioral health, pediatrics and neonatal intensive care.

For its analysis, Healthgrades evaluated approximately 45 million Medicare inpatient records for nearly 4,500 short-term acute care hospitals nationwide to assess hospital performance in 31 common conditions and procedures and evaluated outcomes in appendectomy and bariatric surgery using all-payer data provided by 16 states. Healthgrades recognizes a hospital’s quality achievements for cohort-specific performance, specialty area performance, and overall clinical quality. Individual procedure or condition cohorts are designated as 5-star (statistically significantly better than expected), 3-star (not statistically different from expected), and 1-star (statistically significantly worse than expected).

* Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2018 through 2020 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only. For appendectomy and bariatric surgery, Healthgrades used inpatient data from 16 states that provide all-payer data for years 2017 through 2019. Due to the highly variable impact of the pandemic on hospital outcomes, Healthgrades made the decision to exclude cases with a COVID-19 diagnosis from the 2020 data in order to preserve the statistical integrity of our models and fairly evaluate clinical outcomes at all hospitals. To view the complete methodology, visit: https://www.healthgrades.com/quality/ratings-awards/methodology.