Thumbs up: At the quality awards ceremony, SSM Health Care Chair/CEO Sister Mary Jean Ryan is flanked on the left by SSM Senior Vice President - Strategic Development Paula Friedman and on the right by St. Mary's President Brent VanConia, who is holding the award.

View photos from the awards ceremony.

LAKE OF THE OZARKS (November 20, 2009) - St. Mary's Health Center in Jefferson City, Mo., was honored with a 2009 Missouri Quality Award at ceremonies Nov. 19. The award, given by the Excellence in Missouri Foundation, honors excellence in areas such as organizational performance, leadership, customer service and satisfaction.

Also honored was Pat Gilligan, vice president of strategic and financial planning/system quality at SSM Integrated Health Technologies, which is the business unit responsible for information technology and clinical engineering services for SSM-owned, -managed and -affiliated acute-care hospitals and nursing homes. Gilligan received the James Williamson Award for Achievement in Quality, which recognizes Missouri Quality Award volunteers who have made a "significant contribution in aiding organizations to advance in their journey to performance excellence."

Over a two-year period, St. Mary's quality of care has risen to among the leaders in the country. A national hospital research organization ranked it in the top 1 percent among 4,400 hospitals in the country, based on data compiled by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and highlighted it as a case study.

The Excellence in Missouri Foundation, a not-for-profit educational organization, sponsors the Missouri Quality Award which recognizes excellence in quality leadership. It is modeled after the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Since the MQA's inception in 1992, SSM Health Care organizations have earned the award 11 times:
 

ST. LOUIS (Updated November 7, 2009) - Patients' paper medical charts  virtually disappeared at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 7 as SSM St. Mary's Health Center launched its electronic health record, making it the sixth of seven SSM Health Care hospitals in the St. Louis area to go live with EHR.

SSM Health Care's conversion to EHR has now surpassed the halfway point. Eight of 15 SSM Health Care hospitals systemwide have EHR.

"EHR gives us the ability to identify best practices in care, avoid errors, and make sustained clinical improvement," St. Mary's President Bill Jennings said. "We already have very good clinical outcomes -- some of the best in the country. EHR will help accelerate our journey to provide the best care and best results for our patients."