Monday, June 6, 2011

Where to Go Not to Die (Hospitals)

Thomson Reuters today announced the top 10 Health Care Systems. And there are surprises in the list.

  1. Advocate Health Care*  ― Oak Brook, IL

  2. Cape Cod Healthcare ― Hyannis, MA

  3. Care Group Healthcare System ― Boston, MA

  4. Kettering Health Network* ― Dayton, OH
  5. Maury Regional Healthcare System ― Columbia, TN

  6. Mayo Foundation**  ― Rochester, MN

  7. North Shore University Health System ― Evanston, IL

  8. OhioHealth* ― Columbus, OH

  9. Partners Healthcare ― Boston, MA

  10. Spectrum Health** ― Grand Rapids, MI

Health Train’s first observation is that there were three systems in the Boston, MA market, one of which is in a relatively small town on Cape Cod.

Secondly many are in what I consider, smaller markets and finally there were only two systems that has been on the list more than once, and three that have been on it twice. This may be an indication of the effects of outcome studies and penalties for ‘never events’.  Hospitals seem to be paying attention to updated guidelines to ensure patient safety.

Overall Jean Chenoweth, senior VP for Performance Improvement at Thomson Reuters said, 

"To produce consistent, strong performance across multiple hospitals, health system leaders must be providing crystal clear goals and communication as well as the means for staff to execute effectively,"  Chenoweth went on to say, “These systems are positioned well  as we move into the era of health reform”.   The Train is on the move !

The performance of 258 health systems were judged on these metrics:

 

  • In-hospital mortality
  • Medical complications
  • 
Patient safety
  • Average length of stay
  • 
30-day mortality rate (post-discharge)
  • 30-day readmission rate (post discharge)
  • Adherence to clinical standards of care (evidence-based core measures published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
  • 
Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems patient survey score (part of a national initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to measure the quality of care in hospitals). 


  • More details can be found here

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