CSBJ Daily

Penrose-St. Francis Health Services has been ranked among America’s 50 Best Hospitals – the only recipient of the award in Colorado.

The designation, by nonprofit organization HealthGrades, ranks hospitals based solely on clinical outcomes, recognizing hospitals that have the highest outcomes during an eight-year period. The organization analyzed Medicare patient records from 1999-2006.

HealthGrades found that patients admitted to “distinguished hospitals” are on average 27 percent more likely to survive and 5 percent less likely to have a major complication and that if all patients were treated at the distinguished hospitals, 171,424 lives could have been saved and 9,671 post-operative complications could have been avoided.