For immediate release: June 1, 2011
Contact: Kathy Parry  (802) 371-3205

Berlin, VT – Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is proud to announce that Rutland Regional Medical Center (RRMC), along with its affiliate Vermont Orthopaedic Clinic (VOC), recently earned recognition as a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement. The RRMC/VOC is the only southern Vermont hospital and one of two state facilities to earn this designation.

Blue Distinction is a title awarded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies to medical facilities that demonstrate expertise in delivering quality health care. The designation is based on rigorous, evidence-based, objective selection criteria established with input from expert physicians and medical organizations. Its goal is to help consumers find quality specialty care on a consistent basis, while enabling and encouraging health care professionals to improve the overall quality and delivery of care nationwide.

“Rutland Regional Medical Center and Vermont Orthopaedic Clinic’s Blue Distinction Center recognition demonstrates its commitment to excellence in health care, and specifically the facility’s dedication to quality knee and hip replacement care,” says BCBSVT’s CEO Don George.

“Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is more than proud to partner with such an excellent medical center,” George adds.

Blue Distinction Centers for Knee and Hip Replacement have demonstrated a commitment to quality care and comprehensive inpatient knee and hip replacement services, including total knee replacement, total hip replacement and hip resurfacing. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association determines Blue Center Distinctions through a number of demanding criteria, including: the hospital must be fully accredited; physicians and surgeons must be Board Certified, and; the hospital must perform a high volume of knee and hip replacement procedures.

 “We are thrilled that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont has recognized RRMC/VOC as a center that offers the highest quality joint replacement surgery after examining our program and evidence-based quality measures” said Drew Lighthart, MD, a fellowship trained joint replacement specialist. 

“I am extremely proud of our award winning Joint Replacement Program,” adds Melbourne D. Boynton, MD, a knee and shoulder specialist and Clinical Director of Vermont Orthopaedic Clinic. “We perform these complex procedures routinely and extremely well.”

Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington was also recognized as a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement, and a Blue Distinction Center for Spine Surgery. Two other hospitals in the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont network also previously earned Blue Distinction Center recognition; Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is a Blue Distinction Center for Complex and Rare Cancers and Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital is a Blue Distinction Center for Knee and Hip Replacement, as well as a Blue Distinction Center for Spine Surgery. Both facilities are located in Lebanon, N.H.

For more information on the Blue Distinction Centers, visit http://www.bcbs.com/innovations/bluedistinction/. To learn more about RRMC’s recognition, call (802) 625-2937 or visit http://www.vermontorthoclinic.org/.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is the state’s only Vermont-based health insurer and is the largest private health plan in Vermont.  The non-profit company employs more than 340 people and provides health care benefits for more than 150,000 Vermonters.  The company offers benefits and services to virtually all Vermont populations through its array of products and through its partner companies, The Vermont Health Plan (TVHP) and Comprehensive Benefits Administrators. More information about Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is available on the Internet at www.bcbsvt.com   Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont is an independent corporation operating under a license with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans.