Research Names Hundred Top Hospitals

Healthcare market intelligence provider Solucient has released its first ranking of top US hospitals. The list recognizes the hundred hospitals with the highest rates of improved patient outcomes and financial performance over a five-year period.

The first edition of 100 Top Hospitals: Performance Improvement Leaders appears in the March 15, 2004 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine and is based on an analysis of overall US hospital improvement rates between 1997 and 2001.

In the five year period, performance improvement leader hospitals, or 'PI Leaders', decreased their average mortality rate by 24%, compared to 8% for peer hospitals in the study. Patient complications at PI Leader hospitals decreased by 17%, while complications at peer hospitals decreased by only 5%. PI Leaders were able to return patients back to everyday life nearly a day quicker than at peer hospitals, which may have contributed to lower costs - expenses per discharge at PI Leader hospitals fell by 3% between 1997 and 2001, while expenses at peer hospitals increased by more than 15%.

The study analyzed acute care hospitals across the US according to key measures: risk-adjusted mortality and risk adjusted complications, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, percent of outpatient revenue, total asset turnover, and coding specificity. Information used included publicly available Medicare MedPAR data and Medicare cost reports. Five hospital classes are represented:

• Major Teaching - 15
• Teaching - 26
• Large Community, 250+ Beds - 20
• Medium Community, 100 to 249 Beds - 19
• Small Community, 25 to 99 Beds - 20

According to Jean Chenoweth, executive director of the 100 Top Hospitals program, 'This study is a major step forward in objectively measuring the impact a superior management team can have on an organization over time by instilling a culture of change. These hospitals are poised to thrive as the growth of pay for performance and consumerism force change in the industry'. The program could also help measure the impact of major industry changes, such as the Balanced Budget Act, on hospital organization-wide performance.

The full list can be found at www.100tophospitals.com/winners/pil04/benchmarks.asp

Solucient's web site is at www.solucient.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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