LaGRANGE — West Georgia Health has been recognized as one of three hospitals in the country to earn Premier Inc.’s QUEST Award for High-Value Healthcare for patient care.

Three hospitals nationwide received the award for achieving top performance in all seven of the areas measured in Premier’s QUEST collaborative, including cost and efficiency, inpatient and outpatient evidence-based care, mortality, safety, patient experience and appropriate hospital use.

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County in New Albany, Mississippi, and Memorial Hospital Miramar in Miramar, Florida, were the other two hospitals to receive the top recognition.

Premier is a health care improvement company that unites an alliance of 3,400 U.S. hospitals and 110,000 other providers.

QUEST is a performance improvement collaborative of about 365 hospitals with the goal of making health care safer, more efficient and consistently effective. All QUEST hospitals participating in QUEST from January to October 2014 were eligible for the QUEST Award.

Premier awarded seven hospitals as finalists for meeting six out of seven criteria, and it also honored a Citation of Merit to the 20 hospitals that met five out of seven criteria.

West Georgia Health was the only hospital in Georgia among the top three award winners, finalists and Citation of Merit honorees.

“West Georgia Health’s participation in the QUEST collaborative reinforces our commitment to reliably deliver the best care experience to the communities we serve,” said Jerry Fulks, WGH president and CEO. “We’re proud to be the only hospital in Georgia to receive the QUEST Award as we continue down our path of improving patient outcomes and health.”

West Georgia Health is being recognized in achieving Premier criteria by:

• Obtaining a mortality rate at least 15 percent less than expected;

• Reducing the average cost of care to at least less than $6,870 per discharge, depending on size of the facility;

• Reliably delivering inpatient and outpatient evidence-based care measures in the areas of heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care at least 96 percent of the time;

• Improving the hospital experience so that patients and families favorably rate their stay and would recommend the facility to others at least 76 percent of the time;

• Reducing preventable harm events; and

• Obtaining a readmissions rate at least 11 percent less than expected.

“QUEST hospitals are driving outstanding patient care and setting high standards in clinical excellence nationwide,” said Susan DeVore, Premier president and CEO. “QUEST hospitals work to outperform in health care together, which is exactly what West Georgia Health is doing. Premier congratulates them for the fantastic achievements they’ve made.”