HighmarkBlue Cross Blue Shield of Pittsburghhas designated Memorial Medical Center (MMC) as a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement.
Memorial is the only Blue Distinction Center for Hip and Knee Replacement in Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Somerset, Indiana and Westmoreland counties.
“We have nine highly skilled, board-certified orthopedic surgeons on the Medical Staff, who perform approximately 650 knee and hip replacement surgeries a year at Memorial, and that number is growing,” says Steve Tucker, President, Memorial Medical Center. “In 2009, HealthGrades named our Joint Replacement Surgery program one of the top 10 in Pennsylvania, and the fact that we continue to earn accolades for our clinical outcomes in Knee and Hip Replacement is a testament to the high caliber orthopedic surgeons and specialized nurses and staff at Memorial.”
MMC’s Orthopedic Surgery program offers comprehensive knee and hip replacement services, including CT-guided Knee, MRI-guided Knee, Gender-Specific Knee and Minimally Invasive Hip Arthroplasty utilizing Memorial’s new HANA table.
“This program supports Highmark’s consumerism approach to give members a greater hand in their health by providing tools to help members make informed choices about their health care,” said Carey Vinson, M.D., Vice President for Quality and Medical Performance Management at Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. “The Blue Distinction Centers designation offers members reliable quality-based information pertaining to Blue network-participating facilities when selecting a provider.”
The selection criteria used to evaluate facilities were developed with input from a panel of expert physicians. To be designated as a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement, the following types of criteria were evaluated. More information on selection criteria is available on www.bcbs.com:
•Established acute care inpatient facility, including intensive care, emergency care, and a full range of patient support services with full accreditation by a CMS-deemed national accreditation organization
•Experience and training of program surgeons, including case volume
•Quality management programs, including surgical checklists as well as tracking and evaluation of clinical outcomes and process of care
•Multi-disciplinary clinical pathways and teams to coordinate and streamline care, including transitions of care
•Shared decision making and preoperative patient education
The Blue Distinction designation is awarded by the Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield plans to medical facilities that have demonstrated expertise in delivering quality healthcare in the areas of bariatric surgery, cardiac care, complex and rare cancers, knee and hip replacement, spine surgery and transplants. The program is part of The Blues® efforts to collaborate with physicians and medical facilities to improve the overall quality and safety of specialty care.
“With the talented surgeons and advanced technology that the Orthopedic Surgery program at Memorial offers, why would people go anywhere else for a knee or hip replacement surgery?” says Don Lowry, MD, Divisional Chairman, Orthopedic Surgery, MMC. “We pride ourselves on our clinical outcomes and tailor our comprehensive services to each individual patient. I feel that the best orthopedic care is right here, and I’m very proud to be a part of it.”
