Missoula Hospital Named Tops in Cancer and Orthopedic Care

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Providence St. Patrick Hospital is basking in the glow of several prestigious awards from CMS, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report that were just announced in the past week.

KGVO News spoke to Dr. James McKay, Chief Medical Officer for Providence St. Patrick Hospital about the awards and their importance.

St. Patrick Hospital Receives Prestigious Awards

“This is a rating given out by CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) which really looks at all hospitals in the country,” began Dr. McKay. “They poured out quality scores on a star-based system from zero to five stars, with five stars being the highest. What I'm happy to report is St. Pat's again received a five-star rating for hospital quality for 2023. And the thing I'd like to point out is that our 14 consecutive five-star ratings and also the time period that was measured was from April 2019 to September 2022. So that included going through really the height and challenges which were enormous of the COVID pandemic.”

Dr. McKay also proudly pointed out that St. Patrick Hospital was named the best in the state for orthopedics by U.S. News and World Report.

St. Pat's Named Best Orthopedic Hospital in Montana

“The U.S. News and World Report came out and named St. Pat's the number one hospital in Montana for orthopedics,” he said. “That was based on a number of factors, outcomes and experience, including the programs and services, how comprehensive they were that we offer, and then professional recognition and things like we're a Magnet Hospital, which means we really have a commitment towards nursing quality, which obviously is incredibly important when it comes to taking care of these orthopedic patients. So we were very happy to be recognized as the number one Orthopedic Hospital in Montana.”

Dr. McKay said U.S. News and World Report also recognized St. Pat’s in a number of other areas of health care.

“U.S. News and World Report also looked at other areas,” he said. “We were in the top 10 percent of all hospitals in the country in a number of other areas including heart attack, aortic valve surgery, heart failure, back surgery, stroke, hip replacement, knee replacement, pneumonia, so a lot of areas where we were scored in the top 10 percent in the country.”

St. Pat's Named Best Cancer Hospital in Montana

The cherry on top was an award by Newsweek naming St. Patrick Hospital as the best cancer hospital in the state.

“The last thing I would want to bring out,” he said. “Newsweek just named St. Pat's the best cancer hospital, the number one cancer hospital in Montana. That was also based on multiple data points, including online surveys where they talked to professionals around the country. You couldn't vote or put anything in for your own institution, but they asked what they thought of their peer institutions. Then of course there were the patient surveys and then just our quality marks and data. So, in orthopedics and cancer (St. Patrick Hospital is) number one in Montana.”

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