Camden Clark Medical Center has been named a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement from HIGHMARK West Virginia demonstrating better overall quality of care and patient results.

Knee and hip replacement joins the hospital’s cardiac care program, which was previously named a Blue Distinction Center.

Blue Distinction® is a national designation awarded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies to medical facilities that have demonstrated expertise in delivering quality healthcare in the areas of bariatric surgery, cardiac care, complex and rare cancers, knee and hip replacement, spine surgery or transplants.

To earn this designation, Camden Clark was evaluated based on an objective, evidence-based selection criteria established with input from expert physicians and medical organizations. The goal of Blue Distinction is to identify medical facilities that deliver better overall quality and medical outcomes for a specific area of specialty care, helping patients and doctors to make more informed hospital choices.

“This designation is a tribute to the dedicated team of physicians, nurses, technicians and therapists who helped develop Camden Clark’s  comprehensive programs in knee and hip replacement,” said Mike King, president and CEO of Camden Clark Medical Center. “Their clinical expertise in this  area of specialty care has resulted in better overall results for our patients.”

Blue Distinction selection criteria cover a broad range of quality measures and are publicly available on www.bcbs.com/bluedistinction. By earning the designation, Camden Clark Medical Center has demonstrated:

• An established program, performing required annual volumes for certain procedures

• Appropriate experience of its care team

• Full facility accreditation by a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)-deemed national accreditation organization

• Adherence to evidence-based clinical care measures and guidelines

• A comprehensive quality management program