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Northside department ranked first in the state
Northside’s orthopedic department averages 700 to 800 total joint replacements and 1,600 total orthopedic surgeries a year.
YOUNGSTOWN — The Center for Orthopedic Excellence at Forum Health Northside Medical Center has been ranked tops in the state of Ohio for overall orthopedic services.
In addition, Northside is among the nation’s top 10 percent of hospitals that accept Medicare for overall orthopedic services and joint replacement, according to an independent survey conducted by HealthGrades for the period 2006-2008.
Northside’s orthopedic department averages 700 to 800 total joint replacements and some 1,600 total orthopedic surgeries a year, said Joanne Grace, clinical nurse manager of the Center for Orthopedic Excellence.
Besides joint replacements, orthopedic procedures include repair of hip, shoulder, foot and ankle damage and spine fusions and disk removal and replacement, Grace said.
At a ceremony Thursday, Forum Northside received HealthGrades’ Orthopedic Surgery Excellence Award and Joint Replacement Excellence Award for its national performance. The Orthopedic Center also earned five-star ratings in overall orthopedic services, joint replacement, total knee replacement, total hip replacement and hip fracture repair.
“Our staff has always been highly skilled and deeply caring in equal measure, and I was not surprised to find out they are the very best in the state of Ohio,” said Michael Seelman, Northside chief operating officer.
The HealthGrades study analyzed patient mortality and complication outcomes in nearly 40 million Medicare hospitalization records from 5,000 hospitals over the years 2006, 2007 and 2008. The new 2010 HealthGrades hospital ratings are posted at www.healthgrades.com.
The hospitals with the lowest percentage of in-hospital complications after surgeries, such as infections, received the highest ratings.
For instance, according to HealthGrades, in a five-star-rated hospital, such as Northside, there was a 79.69 percent lower chance of experiencing one or more in-hospital complications compared to hospitals with one-star ratings.
That is a product of good nursing, Grace said.
Hospitals receiving a five-star rating have mortality or complication rates that are below the national average, to a statistically significant degree, HealthGrades said.
Because the risk profiles of patient populations at hospitals are not alike, HealthGrades risk- adjusts the data to allow for apples-to-apples comparisons.
In the Mahoning Valley, the patients are slightly older than the national average. The average age here for joint replacement is about 70, Grace said.
Northside’s orthopedic center has 12 orthopedic physicians with privileges at the hospital and 33 private rooms to accommodate surgery patients.
“We do a lot of community outreach with seminars on arthritis and have an arthritis support group that meets periodically. We’re the best-kept secret in Youngstown,” Grace added.
alcorn@vindy.com