Rush University Medical Center was selected as one of the 100 Top Hospitals in the United States by Thomson Reuters. The annual Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals National Benchmarks study identifies the 100 best U.S. hospitals based on their overall organizational performance. Rush was one of only 15 major teaching hospitals in the country to be named.
The 17th annual study evaluated hospitals performances in 10 key areas including, mortality, medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, patient satisfaction, adherence to clinical standards of care, and post-discharge mortality and readmission rates.
"This year's study magnified the value that 100 Top Hospital award winners provide to their communities. Even during the economic downturn, the 100 Top Hospitals continue to raise the bar for clinical quality and patient satisfaction," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Reuters. "The insistence of these hospitals' leaders - their boards, executive teams and medical staffs - on overall excellence makes the difference."
Researchers at Thomson Reuters evaluated 2,926 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 data set.
The study found that if Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated at the 100 Top Hospitals:
•More than 98,000 additional patients would survive each year.
•More than 197,000 patient complications would be avoided annually.
•Expenses would decline by an aggregate $5.5 billion a year.
•The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.
Reducing patients' risk of unnecessary admission to the hospital after discharge has been a major focus at Rush. In an effort to help patients cope after discharge, Rush launched a pilot project in 2007 in which social workers followed-up via telephone with patients at high risk for being readmitted.
"This award recognizes our focus, collaborative efforts, and innovative practices to improve quality, efficiency, evidence-based processes and patient satisfaction in order to better serve our patients and communities," said Dr. Larry Goodman, CEO and President, Rush University Medical Center.
Overall, the 100 top hospitals scored better than their peer hospitals on the following measures:
•The risk-adjusted mortality index for the benchmark hospitals was 0.94, which is 6.3 percent lower than the index score of 1 at peer facilities. (A lower score is better.)
•The risk-adjusted complications index was 0.96 at benchmark hospitals, which is 3.4 percent lower than the 0.99 index score at peer hospitals. (A lower score is better.)
•The patient-safety index was 0.87, which is 13 percent lower than the index score of 1 at peer hospitals. (A lower score is better.)
•Core measures average score, which measures adherence to evidence-based processes, was 95.5 percent at benchmark hospitals, compared with 93.4 percent at peer facilities. (A higher percentage is better.)
•Average length of stay was 4.69 days at benchmark hospitals, 9.2 percent shorter than the 5.16 days at peer hospitals.
•Expense per adjusted discharge was $5,359 at top hospitals,11 percent lower than the $6,022 at peer hospitals;
•Patient satisfaction received a score of 263, which is 4 percent higher than the score of 253 at peer hospitals. (A higher score is better.)
Preterm birth linked to increased mortality risk from infancy to adulthood