ASHLAND — Earning a distinction as one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals for a fourth consecutive year speaks volumes about what King’s Daughters Medical Center offers the community, said Dr. Mark Detherage, vice president of clinical quality at KDMC.

King’s Daughters was named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals by Thomson, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare.

“It speaks to the consistency of what the hospital offers,” Detherage said of the award. “Each year, the standards become tougher and tougher. It’s more difficult to stay ahead of that and maintain a leadership status.”

The award recognizes hospitals that achieve excellence in five key areas:

—quality of care

—patient safety

—financial performance

—efficiency

—growth in patient volume

KDMC is the only hospital in the region to be named among the 100 Top Hospitals. In fact, no other hospital within 100 miles of Ashland is among the 100 Top Hospitals. The medical center was selected among the nation’s top 20 “Large Community Hospitals,” a category that includes medical centers with more than 250 beds.

KDMC President/CEO Fred Jackson was proud of the honor.

“This award is a direct reflection on the coordinated work effort and work ethic of our 3,700 team members,” he said. “They not only work hard to care for our patients, but they also work smart — allowing Team KDMC to consistently deliver high quality, customer-focused healthcare. Having four consecutive Thomson Top 100 awards clearly validates why we are the region’s healthcare provider of choice. We are making a difference in the health of our community.”

The 100 Top Hospitals award is not a formal competition which hospitals choose to enter.

“You don’t apply for this particular award,” Detherage said. “It’s simply chosen based on a set of criteria. The data they use is objective data and publicly available. Some of what they look at are national treatment standards, what we call core measures. All hospitals have to report it.”

Thomson independently analyzes hospital performance across the entire organization, including contributions from medical staff, nurses and technologists, and management.

The award is special because of all it encompasses, Detherage said.

“It looks at more that just our clinical quality,” he said. “It looks at the cost effectiveness of our care and what benefit King’s Daughters is to the community.”

Detherage has been with the hospital since 2001 and has been vice president of clinical quality since October.

Some of the key measurements used by Thomson, formerly Solucient, are:

—Patient outcomes: Survival rates for all patients, plus low rates of surgical complications like infections and severe bleeding after surgery.

—Patient safety: Avoiding unwanted events, like respiratory failure, infections, and unexpected deaths in low-risk diseases.

—National treatment standards: A set of basic care practices that patients with heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia should receive.

—Efficiency: Measures length of patient stay. When all parts of the hospital work together, patients return to their daily lives faster and costs are lower.

—Financial stability: Hospitals that are well-managed financially attract the best medical professionals, acquire new technology, and expand services.

—Growth in service: Growth in the number of patients seeking treatment in inpatient, emergency department, ambulatory surgery, and outpatient services.

The recognition of clinical quality is the latest national recognition for KDMC, which has grown from a hospital that employed 1,200 in the mid-1990s to one that now employs 3,700.

“As the hospital has been able to grow, the community has been able to grow with us,” said Tom Dearing, a spokesman for the hospital. “We’re proud to be able to offer good jobs and good careers in medical services. King’s Daughters has become a destination for people.”