Conservative Cafe gives SAMC Capital Campaign a special boost

A more than generous helping of charity

CROWN POINT - The largest crowd since opening week in 2007 was on hand at Conservative Café recently as part of a fund-raiser to benefit the Saint Anthony Medical Center Capital Campaign.

Owners Dave Beckham and Bill McCall, who had pledged to donate 50 percent of their April 2 proceeds to the campaign, did better than that – contributing $1,550, or nearly 60 percent. A local donor will match that amount.

Saint Anthony employees and area patrons kept the restaurant staff hopping all day.
“At one point, the line was out the door,” Beckham said. “It was one heck of day. The hospital people really care about this cause and came through big-time.
“From 10:30 a.m. until 3 p.m., there was no down time. We still had crowds at 8:30 p.m. People who came in for lunch said they would be back for dinner.”
The business, which normally closes at 8 p.m., stayed open an hour later to further benefit the cause.

McCall said he and Beckham were pleased to donate more than 50 percent of the proceeds.
“This is such a worthwhile cause; we wanted to more than do our part to help. There was such a

great show of support,” McCall added.

Beckham said the restaurant saw numerous first-time customers who promised to return, including some who had read about the fund-raiser in local newspapers and came from throughout Northwest Indiana to lend support.

“A couple from Hobart said they read about it and loved the idea of what the program is trying to accomplish,” he added. “With so many people having financial problems these days, helping the uninsured is a great cause. We want to be part of it and give back to the community.”
The campaign has a goal of raising $4.5 million to relocate and expand the hospital’s St. Clare Clinic and its Pre-Natal Assistance Center, both of which provide free services for the area’s underprivileged. Funds also will go toward enhancing services at Franciscan Point, Saint Anthony’s outpatient health complex. So far nearly $2 million, which includes the matching funds, has been raised for the campaign.

“We can’t thank Bill and Dave enough for their hard work and generous support of the capital campaign,” said David Ruskowski, hospital president. “They toiled long and hard for our fund-raiser and donated even more than the 50 percent amount we had expected. We want the community to know how much the Conservative Café cares about its neighbors.”
Warren Johnson, director of development for Saint Anthony’s parent, Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Northern Indiana Region, agreed, calling the fund-raiser “a win-win-win situation” and “a viable partnership.”

“It’s a win for the restaurant, which receives more exposure and business; a win for the hospital because it helps provide money for services for the uninsured and a win for the community, because it, in turn, receives the services.”

A Conservative Café is located at 201 N. Main St. For more information, call (219) 661-1700, or visit http://www.conservativecafe.com/.

Saint Anthony Medical Center in top 5% for patient safety

Hospital ranked among nation’s best in annual HealthGrades report

CROWN POINT - Saint Anthony Medical Center is ranked among the best in the nation when it comes to patient safety outcomes.
The hospital is a 2009 recipient of the Patient Safety Excellence Award, following a HealthGrades Patient Safety in American Hospitals Study.
HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent health care ratings organization, studies the records of more than 5,000 hospitals before releasing its findings.
The sixth annual report, made public today (April 7), ranked Saint Anthony in the top 5 percent nationwide in the patient safety outcomes category.
Award recipients have the highest safety rates in 12 categories, including such areas as post-operative infection and preventable deaths.
Only seven other hospitals in Indiana and 242 nationally, received the award.
Saint Anthony President David Ruskowski was pleased to hear of the rating, but wasn’t surprised.
“Achieving this honor is not just a matter of good fortune for Saint Anthony. We have scores of staff and physicians analyzing patient procedures and practices each day. As a result, we have been implementing new patient safety initiatives on a regular basis for many years.”
Patients treated at top-performing hospitals had, on average, a 43 percent lower chance of experiencing one or more medical errors, compared to the poorest-performing hospitals, according to the study.
Between 2005 and 2007, 913,215 patient safety incidents were recorded among Medicare beneficiaries, which represents 2.3 percent of nearly 38 million Medicare hospital cases. That equates to one reported safety incident every 1.7 minutes.
“Medical errors are unfortunately all too common in hospitals today. We challenge every hospital in the country to bring their A-game when it comes to patient safety,” said Rick May, MD, senior physician consultant at HealthGrades and co-author of the study.
“Saint Anthony Medical Center has gone the extra mile to create a culture that has led to the reduction of patient safety events. The staff and physicians at Saint Anthony should be proud of their accomplishment,” he added.
The sixth annual HealthGrades study applied methodology developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to identify incident rates of 15 patient safety indicators among Medicare patients at virtually all of the nation’s 5,000 nonfederal hospitals.
Additionally, HealthGrades applied its methodology using 12 patient safety indicators to identify the best-performing hospitals.
Individual hospital ratings are available at www.healthgrades.com.




BREAKOUT
Sisters of St. Francis Health Services
Northern Indiana Region hospitals
have history of success

The four hospitals that make up Northern Indiana Region of the Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Inc. are five-star rated in several service areas, according to HealthGrades, the leading independent health care ratings company in the country. The breakdown includes:

Saint Anthony Medical Center – Crown Point (www.stanthonymedicalcenter.com)
* Five-star rated for patient safety in 2009.
* Five-star rated for treatment of stroke – seven consecutive years.
* Ranked among the top 15 percent nationwide for stroke treatment – seven consecutive years.
* Five-star rated for hip fracture repair – two consecutive years.
* Ranked among the top 15 percent nationwide for hip fracture repair – two consecutive years.

Saint Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers – Dyer and Hammond (www.smmhc.com)
* Five-star rated for heart failure treatment – three consecutive years.
* Ranked among the top 15 percent nationwide for heart failure treatment – three consecutive years.
* Ranked in the top 10 in Indiana for overall cardiac, heart surgery and cardiology services.
* Ranked in the top 10 in Indiana for spine surgery.
* Five-star rated for hip fracture repair – four consecutive years.
* Ranked among the top 15 percent nationwide for hip fracture repair – four straight years.

Saint Anthony Memorial – Michigan City (www.saintanthonymemorial.org)
* Five-star rated for heart failure treatment and total hip replacement.
* Ranked among in the top 15 percent nationwide for treatment of heart failure and total hip replacement.
* One of two five-star-rated heart failure treatment programs in the South Bend area.
Franciscan Physicians Hospital – Munster (www.franciscanphysicianshospital.com)
* Five-star rated for heart failure treatment.
* Ranked in the top 15 percent nationally for heart failure treatment.