LEWISTON — St. Mary’s d’Youville Pavilion recently earned the prestigious 2012 Innovation Award from LeadingAge.

LeadingAge is a national association representing 5,500 nonprofit aging-services organizations. The association recognized d’Youville Pavilion for its efforts and best practices to reduce patient re-hospitalization rates.

In 2010, St. Mary’s d’Youville Pavilion embarked on a journey to reduce patient re-admissions to the hospital. The process started with comparing existing practices against industry evidence?based standards. A weekly work group was created to review hospital re-admissions and to develop an action plan that would change processes and outcomes, improving the quality of care.

As a result of d’Youville Pavilion’s project, its re-hospitalization rate went from 16 percent in 2010 to 8.12 percent in the first quarter of 2012. This endeavor has been a great success and efforts continue to grow with further partnerships, physician-to-physician communication, and improving the facility’s ability to analyze data.

The LeadingAge recognition follows other recent accolades. St. Mary’s d’Youville Pavilion earned the highest quality rating — five out of five stars — from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Maine Health Care Association’s Celebrating Excellence in Quality Award, the MHCA’s Celebrating Excellence in Innovation Award, and Dorland Health Silver Crown Award Honorable Mention.

For more information, go to: www.stmarysmaine.com and click on “Senior Health.”