Quality and Safety

St. Mary's Health Care System is committed to providing safe, quality care to every patient and family. We are committed to patient safety as a core value and strive towards the goal of zero preventable harm. Monitoring our quality and safety outcomes in the care we provide helps us to improve the way we deliver care. Each year, St. Mary's Hospital, St. Mary's Good Samaritan Hospital, and St. Mary's Sacred Heart Hospital:

• Incorporates The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goals into our care practices
• Proactively seeks new and innovative ways to provide the highest quality and safest care for our patients

As part of our continuing efforts to provide our patients and the community with accessible, accurate and honest data, we encourage you to review quality and safety information for St. Mary's Health Care System on the following websites. Our goal in each of the metrics is to perform better than the national and state benchmark.

• Hospital Compare
• The Joint Commission’s Quality Check®

Certifications and Reviews

On a routine basis, St. Mary's Health Care System welcomes surveyors from organizations into our facilities to ensure we are consistently providing the best possible experience and outcomes for our patients. These organizations, like the Joint Commission, Department of Community Health, American Heart Association, Georgia Drug and Narcotics and other regulatory agencies routinely work with hospitals to ensure all patients receive the highest quality, safest patient care. A rigorous review process is mutually beneficial and affirms the quality and safety of our care, which is always our top priority.

The Joint Commission

The Joint Commission, an independent, not-for-profit organization, evaluates and certifies over 22,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality and safety that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards. The Joint Commission’s comprehensive accreditation process evaluates an organization’s compliance with these standards and other accreditation requirements.

Through the Joint Commission’s Quality Check® website, consumers have access to information about Joint Commission-accredited health care organizations and programs throughout the United States, as well as organizations that are not accredited by the Joint Commission.