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The study -- 2007 Thomson 100 Top Hospitals(R): Cardiovascular Benchmarksfor Success -- examined the performance of nearly 1,000 U.S. hospitals byanalyzing their outcomes for eight measures related to congestive heartfailure, heart attacks, coronary artery bypass grafts (CABGs), andpercutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs), such as angioplasties. A list ofthe 100 Top Hospitals, based on these results, is available athttp://www.100tophospitals.com/winners/cardiowinners.aspx.
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If all cardiovascular hospitals achieved the same results as the 100 TopHospitals award winners, according to the study, more than 7,000 lives wouldbe saved and nearly 750 medical complications would be avoided annually.
The study, in its ninth year, found that the 100 Top Hospitals awardwinners had:
There also was a large difference in the volume of heart proceduresperformed by the cardiovascular award-winning hospitals and their peers. Thewinning hospitals performed nearly two-thirds more CABGs and PCIs.
"An important shift was identified in where CABG patients are beingtreated, and this shift in patient volume may be the initial indicator thattransparency is having an impact," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice presidentfor performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs, Center forHealthcare Improvement, Thomson Healthcare. "The gap in CABG volume betweenthe 100 Top Hospitals and the peers grew from 104 percent in 2005 to 122percent in 2006 in the Community Hospital category."
The list of winning hospitals is published in the Nov. 19 issue of ModernHealthcare magazine.
The study analyzed acute-care hospitals nationwide using detailedempirical performance data from publicly available 2005 and 2006 MedicareMedPAR data and 2006 Medicare cost reports. Thomson Healthcare researchersscored hospitals in eight key performance areas: risk-adjusted medicalmortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, risk-adjusted complications, coremeasures score, percentage of CABG patients with internal mammary artery use,procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage- andseverity-adjusted average cost.
The measures were calculated for three classes of hospitals with thefollowing number of winners in each:
About Thomson Healthcare
Thomson Healthcare is the leading provider of decision support solutionsthat help organizations across the healthcare industry improve clinical andbusiness performance. Thomson Healthcare products and services helpclinicians, hospitals, employers, health plans, government agencies, andpharmaceutical companies manage the cost and improve the quality ofhealthcare.
Thomson Healthcare is a part of The Thomson Corporation, a provider ofvalue-added information, software tools and applications to professionals inthe fields of healthcare, law, tax, accounting, scientific research, andfinancial services. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New Yorkand Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). For more information, visit(www.thomsonhealthcare.com).-- Hospital stays that were 12 percent shorter, on average, than peer hospitals (5.14 days compared with 5.85 days). -- Costs that averaged 13 percent -- or about $2,000 -- less per case than peer hospitals.
SOURCE Thomson Healthcare
