ANN ARBOR — The Ann Arbor health care information firm Truven Health Analytics has released its annual study identifying the 100 top hospitals in the United States based on their overall organizational performance.
The study found that the top performing hospitals in the country were able to improve outcomes while reducing overall expense per patient.
This was the first time in the study’s 23-year history that a notable trend toward reduced expense per patient was observed among the majority of top-performing hospitals.
“Many of the 2016 100 Top Hospitals award winners are breaking the mold for high performance,” said Truven senior vice president Jean Chenoweth. “Hospitals in three out of the five hospital categories actually reduced overall expense year over year, while improving patient outcomes. Some of these hospitals also show a small degradation of operating profit margin. Hopefully this is not an indicator of a developing trend.”
Following were the key performance benchmarks for 100 Top Hospitals award winners when compared with their peers:
* Better Survival Rates: As a group, 100 Top Hospitals had 23 percent fewer deaths than expected considering patient severity.
* Fewer Patient Complications: Patients at winning hospitals had 21 percent fewer complications than expected considering patient severity.
* Lower 30-Day Mortality and Readmission Rates: Mean 30 day mortality and readmission rates were lower at winning hospitals than non-winning hospitals across all comparison groups.
* Shorter Length of Stay: Winning hospitals had a median severity-adjusted length of stay that was a half-day shorter than peers.
* Higher Profit Overall Margins: Winning hospitals had a median operating profit margin that was nearly nine percentage points higher than non-winning hospitals.
Based on the results of this year’s study, if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities, more than 104,000 additional lives could be saved. nearly 48,400 additional patients could be complication free, $2 billion in inpatient costs could be saved, and the average patient stay would decrease by half a day.
If the same standards were applied to all inpatient care, the impact would be even greater.
The Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals is the most comprehensive and academically driven study of its kind. It evaluates clinical and operational performance in 11 areas, addressing: inpatient mortality; 30-day mortality rate; complications; core measures; 30-day risk-adjusted readmission rate; severity-adjusted average length of stay; mean emergency room throughput; inpatient expense per discharge; Medicare spend per beneficiary; adjusted operating profit margin; and Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems score (patient rating of overall hospital performance). The study has been conducted annually since 1993.
For the eighth year, Truven Health Analytics is also recognizing the 100 Top Hospitals Everest Award winners — those hospitals among the 100 winners that delivered the greatest rate of improvement over five years. This year, there are 17 Everest Award winners.
Among the major teaching hospitals named to the Top 100 list were Providence Park Hospital in Southfield and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. St. Joseph Mercy also won an Everest Award.
Among the teaching hospitals on the list were Mercy Health St. Mary’s and Spectrum Health Medical Center, both in Grand Rapids, and MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland. The Midland hospital also won an Everest Award.
Finally, among the medium-sized community hospitals in the top 100 was Holland Hospital in Holland.
To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Truven Health researchers evaluated 3,000 short-term, acute-care, non-federal hospitals. They used public information — Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website. Hospitals do not apply, and winners do not pay to market this honor.
For more information, visit www.100tophospitals.com.