JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - (October 22, 2009) St. Mary'ss Health Center employees celebrated Thursday upon learning their efforts to provide quality health care had earned them a 2009 Missouri Quality Award. The award, given by the Excellence in Missouri Foundation, honors excellence in areas such as organizational performance, leadership, customer service and satisfaction.

St. Mary's will be honored during the 17th annual Excellence in Missouri Conference Nov. 18-20 at Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach, Mo. The announcement marked a remarkable turnaround for St. Mary's. 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.

St. Mary's was the only health-care organization among this year's three recipients which also included Park Hill School District, Kansas City, and Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis. Since the inception of the Missouri Quality Award in 1992, a SSM Health Care facility has been honored 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 will have EHR.

"We are days away from truly having the information at our fingertips to make transformational change in the care we provide to our patients," said Bill Jennings, president of SSM St. Mary's. "The technology, all the new computers and intensive training are really about improving the care we provide our patients.

"EHR gives us the ability to identify best practices in care, avoid errors, and make sustained clinical improvement," 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."