(Fairfield, Ohio) – Mercy Hospital Fairfield is among the elite hospitals nationally for cardiac care.  The hospital has earned that distinction after being named a winner of the 2008 Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmark Award.  Mercy Fairfield is one of only eight hospitals in Ohio to earn the award.

The recognition is reserved only for hospitals that set the highest national performance levels for both clinical and managerial excellence.  To qualify, hospitals must achieve high scores across eight equally-weighted performance criteria that reflect the use of evidence-based medicine, good clinical outcomes, high procedure volume, great efficiency, and reasonable cost. 

The Top 100 analysis is specifically focused on two prevalent cardiovascular conditions – heart attacks and heart failure; and two high volume interventions – coronary-artery bypass graft and percutaneuous coronary intervention. “Being named one of the best cardiovascular hospitals in the country is a huge feather in the cap of the physicians, staff and administration at Mercy Hospital Fairfield,” noted F. Thomas Jenike, MD, a cardiologist on staff at Mercy Fairfield. “This honor demonstrates that a suburban hospital certainly can deliver world-class cardiovascular care.”

 In compiling the information for the award, Thomson Reuters found that while the average mortality rate for cardiovascular patients is very low (3.4 percent), the mortality rate for bypass
surgery was an additional 26 percent lower in the 100 Top Hospitals cardiovascular winners.  The study also showed that the award-winning hospitals demonstrated higher performance on the evidence-based core measures provided by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

“I am happy for our medical staff, nurses, caregivers, volunteers, and, most importantly, the communities we serve,” said Tom Urban, president/CEO of Mercy Hospital Fairfield.  “We pride ourselves on delivering the highest quality care available for our patients, and I think it is important to know that the people of Butler County and the region have one of the nation’s leading hospitals for cardiovascular care right here in their own backyard.”

For more information about the 2008 Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmark Award, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.