Quality in Maine Hospitals

Hospitals provide outstanding care to the people of Maine. Maine hospitals offer excellent quality of care, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website.

This is nothing new.  As far back as 2003, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, using similar data, ranked the quality of care provided by Maine’s hospitals as 3rd in the country since 1998.    And now, Maine hospitals are among the best in the country according to a report from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which used many of the same measures from Hospital Compare, along with claims and other data not posted by CMS.

In 2015, Maine had the third highest rate of hospitals recognized for outstanding performance by the Joint Commission, according to that organization’s annual report.
 
Ten of Maine’s 21 Joint Commission-accredited hospitals were recognized for outstanding performance, a rate of 48 percent. 

In 2016, AHRQ said that Maine was one of five states that set the achievable benchmark for  transitions of care, according to AHRQ's Chartbook on Care Coordination.

In November 2019, it was announced, Maine ranked first among all states on the 2016 Advanced Care Transformation (ACT) Index(SM) measured by the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC).

In April 2021, the Leapfrog Group released its Hospital Safety Scores.  Maine hospitals had the third highest percentage of A's in the country, with more than 56 percent of Maine hospitals earning A's. In December 2020, five of the 19 hospitals that the Leapfrog Group named as Top Rural Hospitals in the country are Maine hospitals. Only 12 states had hospitals on the list and Maine is the only state with more than three hospitals listed.

Also in April of 2021, the state announced that all 26 birthing hospitals in Maine were Safe Sleep Certified, making Maine the second state nationally to achieve this milestone that protects babies from sleep-related deaths. To become certified, hospitals must develop and maintain a safe sleep policy, train staff on safe sleep guidelines, and educate parents on safe sleep practices prior to discharge.  All 26 birthing hospitals in Maine have now achieved at least a bronze-level Safe Sleep certification.

Although they are already leaders in providing high-quality health care, Maine’s hospitals still strive to improve.  As the science of medicine evolves, so does the science of health care quality.  The field is advancing rapidly and hospitals routinely re-evaluate how they structure, measure and monitor quality management.

 
Maine hospitals also led the nation in measuring and reporting the quality of health care services.  As early evidence of our commitment to transparency and accountability, MHA was among the first organizations in the country to routinely and voluntarily publicly release hospital-specific quality data, including patient survey results.
 
For more information, please contact Steven Michaud.

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