Awards & Accolades

St. Luke’s Hospital Awards

Top 100 Hospital: A five-time winner, St. Luke’s has been rated as one of the nation’s Top 100 Hospitals by Truven Healthcare, the nation’s leader in healthcare information. St. Luke’s earned this award in 2013, 2012, 2009, 2005 and 2004. We are the only hospital in Eastern Iowa that has earned this distinction 5 times and one of only 41 hospitals in the entire country achieving Top 100 recognition five times.
Magnet Award for Excellence in Nursing: St. Luke’s Hospital was designated a Magnet nursing facility by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), becoming the first and only hospital in Cedar Rapids, and just the sixth in Iowa to receive the award.
U.S. News & World Report names St. Luke’s high performing: St. Luke’s Hospital has been recognized as one of America’s high-performing hospitals for the second year in the U.S. News & World Report 2013-14 edition.
CARF Accreditation: St. Luke’s is the first rehabilitation program in Iowa to receive the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) Inpatient Rehabilitation Stroke Specialty Program accreditation. St. Luke’s Brain Injury Program also received accreditation and St. Luke’s Inpatient Rehabilitation unit received a three-year accreditation – the twelfth consecutive three-year accreditation for the unit.
Truven Health Analytics designated St. Luke’s as one of the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals for 2013. Selected from more than 1,000 U.S. hospitals, these winners provide top-notch care and set new standards for the healthcare industry.
In 2013 St. Luke’s Hospital was named to the annual Becker’s Hospital Review list of “100 Great Hospitals in America.” To devise this list, the Becker’s Hospital Review editorial team analyzed data from reputable sources including U.S. News & World Report, Truven Health Analytics’ 100 Top Hospitals, HealthGrades, Magnet Recognition by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the Studer Group and the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. The hospitals included in this list have proven to be innovators for medical treatments, research, technology and care delivery.
Certified Quality Breast Center – St. Luke’s Hospital Breast and Bone Health has recently been recognized as a Certified Quality Breast Center in the National Quality Measures for Breast Centers Program™. This distinguished honor represents a commitment by this breast center to provide the highest level of quality breast health care to patients in their community.
Cancer Program Accreditation: The cancer program at St. Luke’s Hospital earned a three-year approval with commendation from the Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons. Established in 1922 by the American College of Surgeons, the Commission on Cancer is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to improving survival rates and quality of life for cancer patients through standard-setting, prevention, research, education and the monitoring of comprehensive, quality care.
CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ accreditation, recognizing St. Luke’s extraordinary commitment to the health of our employees and their families. The CEO Cancer Gold Standard™ calls for companies to evaluate their health benefits and corporate culture and take extensive, concrete actions in five key areas of health and wellness to fight cancer in the workplace.
Chest Pain Accreditation – St. Luke’s received Chest Pain Center Accreditation from the Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC), an international organization dedicated to eliminating heart disease as the number one cause of death worldwide.
IRPE Award – St. Luke’s received a gold Iowa Recognition for Performance Excellence (IRPE), which recognizes organizations that have completed a strenuous review and evaluation of their leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, measurement, analysis and knowledge management, human resource focus, process management and results.
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)– Certification is awarded JCAHO, which evaluates and accredits nearly 17,000 health-care organizations and programs in the United States. St. Luke’s met all of the standards in all areas of evaluation. JCAHO has also accredited St. Luke’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Home Medical Equipment & Palliative Care . St. Luke’s has earned the Gold Seal of Approval for Disease-Specific Care Certification from The Joint Commission for its heart failure, palliative care and hip and knee joint replacement programs. St. Luke’s has also been re-certified as a Primary Stroke Center by The Joint Commission.
People’s Choice Award: Each year, the National Research Corporation (NRC) publicly recognizes the nation’s top hospitals with their prestigious Consumer Choice Award. For the past seven years, St. Luke’s was identified as a hospital that “healthcare consumers have chosen as having the highest quality and image.”
Beacon Award – The Beacon Award for Critical Care Excellence is an award given by the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and specifically designated to recognize the nation’s top hospital critical care units. Critical care units that receive the Beacon Award will have exhibited high quality standards, exceptional care of patients and their families and healthy work environments.
Advanced Certification in Heart Failure – St. Luke’s Hospital received advanced certification in Heart Failure from the Joint Commission and the American Heart Association. St. Luke’s is the only hospital in Iowa with this certification.
Primary Stroke Center – St. Luke’s Hospital is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission, the American Stroke Association and the American Heart Association.
Blue Distinction Center for Cardiac Care – St. Luke’s was selected by Blue Cross Blue Shield for demonstrating a commitment to quality care, resulting in better overall outcomes for cardiac patients.
Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Program Certification – St. Luke’s Cardiac Rehab program is certified by the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation which recognizes outstanding programs that follow best practices in patient care and program management.
Blue Distinction Center for Spine and Hip & Knee Replacement Surgeries – St. Luke’s was selected by Wellmark for demonstrating a commitment to quality care, resulting in better overall outcomes for spine surgery and hip and knee replacement patients.
Premium Total Joint Specialty Center – St. Luke’s Hospital is proud to be selected as a UnitedHealth Premium Total Joint Specialty Center. UnitedHealthCare evaluated our associates, services and procedures using specific quality criteria and guidelines based on nationally recognized standards and expert advice.
Family Centered Care– St. Luke’s Women’s and Children’s Center is the first birth care center in the nation to receive the national award for outstanding Family Centered Maternity Care. Family Centered Maternity Care is an approach to providing care for women and their families that integrates pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and infant care into the continuum of the family life as normal, healthy life events.

Mercy Medical Center Awards

Mercy Medical Center: Nationally recognized as a leader in quality healthcare

Mercy has been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Truven Health Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters), a leading provider of healthcare information. The Truven Top 100 Hospital designation is a prestigious industry gold standard award, which cannot be purchased. It evaluates the performance of nearly 3,000 hospitals in 10 different performance areas using public data sources. Learn more.
Wellmark® Blue Cross® and Blue Shield® has named Mercy Medical Center-Cedar Rapids as a Blue Distinction Center Plus (+)in the areas of spine surgery, knee and hip replacement. The Blue Distinction Centers for Specialty Care® program is a national designation awarded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies to medical facilities that have demonstrated expertise in delivering quality specialty care – and has recently expanded to include more robust quality measures focused on improved patient health and safety as well as new cost-efficiency measures. Learn more.
Mercy Medical Center has been identified as one of the country’s Top 100 Hospitals for Patient Experience for the second consecutive year based on female patient satisfaction scoring by WomenCertified®, a trusted referral source for top businesses and brands identified among women.
Hospitals are selected for this prestigious annual list based on a scoring process that incorporates Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores along with an analysis that weighs criteria identified as the most important to women for patient satisfaction. Additionally, it takes into consideration WomenCertified’s research on customer satisfaction among women, including a joint study on customer satisfaction by gender conducted with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
As a Top 100 Hospital, and because of its high consumer satisfaction scores, WomenCertified is further honoring Mercy with the Women’s Choice Award. Women are empowered to make better choices by having a Seal that represents the collective opinion of women who highly recommend that brand, service or hospital.
CareChex Medical Rating System is a hospital quality rating service of The Delta Group, which provides clinical, financial and patient satisfaction findings to consumers, providers and purchasers of U.S. medical care. Mercy Medical Center has received quality numerous awards from CareChex throughout the years. Most recently, Mercy was ranked #1 in the state for Overall Medical Care, Major Orthopaedic and Joint Replacement Surgery in 2013. Learn more from CareChex.com.
Accredited by the Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons (ACoS). As the first hospital in the area accredited by the ACoS in 1990, Mercy was re-accredited again in 2011, having received a Three-Year Approval with Commendation . Approval by the CoC is achieved by only those facilities that have voluntarily committed to providing the highest level of cancer care and undergo a rigorous evaluation process. Established in 1922 by the American College of Surgeons, the CoC is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to improving survival rates and quality of life for cancer patients through standard setting, prevention, research, education and the monitoring of comprehensive, quality care. As an ACoS-accredited site, Mercy ensures that a patient will have access to the latest advancements and coordinated system of cancer care.
Certified by the QOPI® Certification Program, an affiliate of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and its Quality Oncology Practice Initiative®. Oncology Associates at Mercy has been recognized by the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®) Certification Program, an affiliate of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). This program provides a three-year certification for outpatient hematology-oncology practices that meet standards for quality cancer care.Oncology Associates has been participating in QOPI for more than seven years. Oncology Associates prides itself on providing the highest quality patient care. This certification reinforces that excellent cancer care is consistently offered close to home, at the Hall-Perrine Cancer Center.
Mercy’s Women’s Center has been named a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiology (ACR) for mammography, breast ultrasound, ultrasound-guided biopsy, and stereotactic biopsy. This designation is awarded to breast imaging centers that achieve excellence by seeking and earning accreditation in all of the ACR’s voluntary breast-imaging accreditation programs and modules, in addition to the mandatory Mammography Accreditation Program.
Mercy is a proud recipient of the Most Wired Award six times since 2006 – most recently in 2013. The Most Wired Hospitals are annually announced in Hospitals & Health Networks magazine, a trade publication published by the American Hospital Association. This recognition is based on technology advancements made by organizations to enhance patient safety, clinical quality and customer service in healthcare centers. The nation’s Most Wired hospitals have demonstrated better outcomes in four key areas—infrastructure, business and administrative management, clinical quality and safety and care continuum.
In 2012, Mercy earned Chest Pain Center Re-Accreditation from The Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC), a national organization committed to improving timely, quality care for cardiac patients. Mercy’s accreditation means the hospital met or exceeded quality-of-care measures based on improving the process for the care of heart attack patients.
100 Great Iowa Nurses awards outstanding nurses throughout Iowa whose courage, competence and commitment to patients and the nursing profession stands out above all others. Mercy is proud to have had many nurses recognized for this award since the program’s inception in 2005.
Mercy is accredited by the Intersocietal Commission for the Accreditation of Echocardiography Laboratories (ICAEL) for its excellence in providing the highest quality echo services. Awarded organizations must face a rigorous review of all aspects of laboratory operation as well as the submission of actual case studies for review.
Mercy Medical Center was awarded a Gold Achievement Award by the American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines (GWTG) Quality Initiative for outstanding care of patients with Coronary Artery Disease and Stroke. Mercy received these awards for outstanding care for several years when participating in the program, including 2007, 2008 and 2009. Mercy also received a Silver Achievement Award for outstanding care of Heart Failure patients. This award signifies that Mercy follows proven evidence-based guidelines and procedures for care of heart and stroke patients in order to prevent future hospitalization. Hospitals must have completed two or more years of participation at 85% or higher adherence to all performance measures to receive a Gold Award. The GWTG program helps ensure that the hospital’s treatment of coronary artery disease, heart failure or stroke is aligned with the most current scientific guidelines and evidence-based treatments and therapies.
As a College of American Pathologists Accredited site, Mercy has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to its laboratory management by improving patient care, strengthening the deployment of quality standards and reducing errors and risk control costs.
Top 25 Hospitals for Treatment of Back and Neck Injuries: In a nationwide survey, Money magazine ranked Mercy as one of the Top 25 Hospitals in the country for quality care in the treatment of back and neck injuries.