North Fulton Regional Hospital was honored today with a series of prestigious distinctions through CIGNA HealthCare, a subsidiary of CIGNA Corporation (NYSE:CI). These quality designations are based on outcomes for treatment of 29 surgical procedures and medical conditions

North Fulton Regional Hospital is one of a few hospitals to have received four distinctions. The facility was honored with awards for the care of Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Total Hip Replacement and Adult Pneumonia.

“Once again we are very proud of these quality awards and the recognition our hospital has been receiving for the outstanding clinical and evidenced-based medical care our physicians and staff provide,” said Kamela Sooknanan, North Fulton Regional Hospital Director of Case Management and Clinical Quality Improvement. “It is an honor to be able to offer such a high quality standard of care to the communities we serve.”

The patient outcomes data for these distinctions are in part based on a hospital’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare measures, Leapfrog Patient Safety Measures, and their mortality and complication rates. The designations indicate superior outcomes and about 57 percent of CIGNA HealthCare’s network hospitals receive a quality designation for treatment of at least one condition.

“Our goal is to provide individuals with valuable information regarding those hospital programs that achieve both superior quality outcomes and superior affordability,” said Dick Salmon, M.D., Ph.D., senior national medical director at CIGNA HealthCare.

These most recent honors follow a serious of quality designations bestowed on North Fulton Regional Hospital. Among these other awards and distinctions include:

• Joint Commission accreditation
• 2006, 2007 & 2008 Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) 5 Million Lives Campaign participant and partner
• 2007 Partnership for Health and Accountability Quality and Patient Safety Award (Georgia Hospital Association) -Second Place Quality Award for Hospital/Health System and 3rd Place Josh Nahum Award for Achievement in Infection Prevention and Control. (Ventilator Associated Pneumonia Project)
• American Academy of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Certification
• American Association for Respiratory Care Quality Respiratory Care Recognition
• American Heart Association’s Get With The GuidelinesSM Achievement Awards for Heart Failure, Coronary Artery Disease and Stroke Care
  *According to AHA: NFRH is 1 of 2 hospitals in GA and 1 of 29 in the country to have reached award status in all 3 of the programs that AHA supports
  

• Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations Primary Stroke Center Certification
• LifeLink award for achieving over 75 percent in our organ donation rate
• UnitedHealth Premium® Specialty Center designation for Surgical Spine

North Fulton Regional Hospital (NFRH), part of Tenet Georgia, is a 202-bed, acute-care hospital located on Highway 9, Alpharetta Highway, in Roswell. Opened in 1983, NFRH serves North Fulton and surrounding counties through its team of over 1000 employees, 400 staff physicians and 200 volunteers. NFRH is a state-designated Level II trauma center and provides a continuum of services through its centers and programs, including neurosciences, orthopedics, rehabilitation, surgical services, bariatric surgical weight loss, gastroenterology and oncology. The hospital is fully accredited and also is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency.

For more information on North Fulton Regional Hospital’s commitment to quality, visit www.northfultonregional.com/quality