Facts about Saint Joseph's

General Facts

• Founded in 1880 by the Sisters of Mercy, Saint Joseph’s is Atlanta’s oldest and only Catholic hospital. Saint Joseph’s is a member of Catholic Health East, a multi-institutional, Catholic health system with facilities in 11 eastern states from Maine to Florida.
• More than 750 physicians comprise Saint Joseph’s specialized medical staff of the 410 bed specialty, acute-care hospital.
• Saint Joseph’s treats more than 28,000 inpatients and nearly 165,000 outpatients each year.
• Every year, Saint Joseph’s provides $37 million annually in charitable and uncompensated care for Atlanta’s poor and elderly.  In addition, Saint Joseph’s Mercy Foundation raises an additional $7 million each year to respond to the medical needs of those patients least able to pay.
• Saint Joseph’s Mercy Care Services, one of the largest outreach efforts in Atlanta, provides primary health care and essential services to the homeless, new immigrants and the uninsured at multiple sites throughout the metropolitan area, including The Gateway 24/7, and to elderly and disabled persons at its site in Rome, Ga.

Clinical Expertise

• Saint Joseph’s is one of the leading acute-care, specialty-referral hospitals in the Southeast providing heart and vascular, neuroscience, orthopaedics, cancer, diabetes and gastroenterology care.
• Saint Joseph’s was the first hospital in the Southeast:

• to perform open-heart surgery.
• to develop a comprehensive cardiac catheterization laboratory.
• to provide angioplasty as an alternative to bypass surgery.

• Saint Joseph’s is one of only two adult heart transplant centers in Georgia.
• Saint Joseph’s performs approximately 1,500 open-heart (bypass) surgeries each year.
• Saint Joseph’s catheterization laboratory performs more than 9,000 cardiac catheterizations and more than 4,100 angioplasties each year.
• Saint Joseph’s performs approximately 1,600 vascular surgery procedures per year – more than any other hospital in metro Atlanta and Georgia.
• Saint Joseph’s has the largest diabetes program in Atlanta seeing more than 300 patients each month and is recognized by the American Diabetes Association  for its education curriculum.
• Saint Joseph’s is one of 50 hospitals in the United States to be designated as a grantee hospital for the National Cancer Institute-funded Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) which offers clinical trials for the treatment and prevention of cancer throughout metro Atlanta and the region in partnership with seven other hospitals.
• In 2004, Saint Joseph's Hospital acquired the most advanced Leksell Gamma Knife technology, providing a noninvasive treatment alternative for brain tumors and other serious brain and nerve disorders that would otherwise require invasive surgery.
• In 2004, Saint Joseph’s Hospital diagnosed and repaired more abdominal aortic aneurysms than any other Georgia hospital.
• Saint Joseph’s is the first hospital in Georgia to perform robotic-assisted, totally-endoscopic, closed-chest heart surgery. Saint Joseph’s acquired the most advanced daVinci-S robotic system in 2005 and is the exclusive Southeastern surgical training center for the daVinci minimally-invasive robotic surgery system.

Recognition

• In 2007, for the fifth consecutive year, Saint Joseph’s earned distinction for clinical cxcellence, remaining in the top five percent of hospitals in the country for overall clinical services. Saint Joseph’s was also rated best in Georgia for cardiac, stroke and gastrointestinal and orthopaedic services by the nation’s leading health-care ratings company. Saint Joseph’s is designated as one of the best in the Sunbelt region for handling heart attacks, interventional cardiology procedures, carotid endarterectomies and peripheral vascular bypasses. For the third consecutive year, Saint Joseph’s is the only hospital in Atlanta to receive this rating. These high marks place Saint Joseph's among the best cardiac programs in the country.
• Saint Joseph’s Hospital also was recognized for excellence in patient safety, according to the nation’s leading health-care ratings company. This distinction ranks Saint Joseph’s Hospital among the top five percent nationally for patient safety outcomes. Saint Joseph’s is one of only 106 hospitals in the country to receive this desgnation for three consecutive years, and the only hospital in Georgia to do so.
• In 2007, U.S. News & World Report named Saint Joseph’s one of the top 50 Orthopaedic hospitals in the nation for the third consecutive year.
• • In 2005, Saint Joseph’s was named in the Solucient’s 100 Top Hospitals® National for organization-wide high performance for the second time.  Saint Joseph’s also was recognized  in 2005 as a 100 Top Hospital® - Cardiovascular for the sixth time by Solucient.
  • In 2005, Saint Joseph’s became a partner with the Larry King Cardiac Foundation to “Save a heart a day” providing lifesaving cardiovascular care to those who need it most.
  • Saint Joseph's Hospital is one of only three hospitals in the nation, and the only in Atlanta, to receive the Magnet Recognition for Nursing Excellence for a third time (2004), remaining in the top one percent of hospitals in the country. The Magnet is the highest recognition for organized nursing services designated by the American Nursing Association’s Credentialing Center.
  • In 2005, Saint Joseph’s was named one of Atlanta’s top employers for the fourth year by the Atlanta Business Chronicle.