Wayne T. Price

FLORIDA TODAY

Five of Brevard County's seven major hospitals have been recognized by the country's leading accreditor of health care organizations.

Recognized by The Joint Commission were Parrish Medical Center, based in Titusville, and all of the Health First hospitals: Cape Canaveral, Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne, Palm Bay Hospital and Viera Hospital.

The local hospitals were among 1,224 hospitals to achieve "Top Performer" distinction, which recognizes hospitals for improving performance on evidence-based interventions that increase the chances of healthy outcomes for patients with conditions ranging from heart failure to stroke to children's asthma.

Authors of the Joint Commission report said it's an opportunity to "gauge progress in health care quality improvement" which it has been tracking the past 12 years. In all, the Joint Commission looked at 3,300 accredited hospitals across the United States.

"To fulfill our mission — healing experiences for everyone all the time, we make continuous performance improvement a priority," said Natalie Sellers, chief communication's officer at Parrish Medical Center. "We are proud to again be named a top performer as it recognizes the knowledge, teamwork and dedication of our more than 1,300 care partners — employees, physicians and volunteers."

Health First executives also were pleased with the Joint Commission's findings.

"This outstanding recognition reinforces the continued commitment of Health First and our dedicated associates to providing the highest quality health care for our patients and our community," said Stuart Mitchell, executive vice president, chief operations officer for Health First.

Contact Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz.