South Texas Health System's McAllen-based hospitals rank among the nation's top 5 percent of hospitals for quality clinical performance, according to HealthGrades, the nation's leading independent healthcare ratings company.

The 2007 national study identified McAllen Medical Center and McAllen Heart Hospital as having earned HealthGrades' 2007 Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence^TM, an award for outstanding clinical performance received by the two area hospitals three years in a row.

"We're very pleased and proud to be recognized with this outstanding HealthGrades quality rating, which confirms our commitment to clinical excellence," says Rebecca Ryder, Interim Chief Executive Officer for McAllen Medical Center and McAllen Heart Hospital. "Top ratings from an independent, objective national source demonstrate the quality care that physicians, nurses and staff deliver to patients and and families in our community every day."

The study independently analyzed 28 procedures and diagnoses of all non-federal hospitals across the country during a three-year period. It found hospitals in the top 5 percent in the country have on average a 28 percent lower risk for mortality and a 5 percent lower risk for patients to suffer from a major complication. This year, only 266 of the nation's 4,971 non-federal hospitals received this distinction.

The results of the study indicated that if all patients were treated at Distinguished Hospitals, 158,264 lives could have been saved and 12,410 post-operative complications could have been avoided during the three years studied.

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