This annual study identifies the nation's top providers of cardiovascular service, using the two most recent years of data.

View the complete list of Cardiovascular award winners.

Findings
Based on comparisons between the Thomson 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks Hospitals and a peer group limited to similar high-volume hospitals, we estimate that:

• If peer hospitals (non-winners) provided the same quality of care as the 100 Top Hospitals, survival rates would increase by more than 7,000 patients each year.
• Complications of care could also decrease in peer hospitals. Nearly 750 additional patients could be complication-free.

In this year's study publication, we:

• Present new research showing that although survival is improving for hospital inpatients overall, pos-discharge mortality rates for heart attack and heart failure patients appear to be on the rise.
• Display data for complete hospital performance reporting. This expands the 100 Top Hospitals benchmark analysis to provide positive performance data to share with hospitals' communities, and complements traditional benchmarks used for internal performance improvement.
• Provide performance measure data, identifying differences between benchmark hospitals and their peers.

Methods
This study focuses on general and applicable specialty, short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals. In this study, we focused on hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients, including those undergoing:

1. acute myocardial infarction (AMI)
2. congestive heart failure (CHF)
3. percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)
4. coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)

The data come from public sources — the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data set, the Medicare Cost Report, and the CMS Hospital Compare data set. We assign each hospital to one of three peer groups according to its teaching and residency program status:

• Teaching Hospitals with Cardiovascular Residency Programs
• Teaching Hospitals without Cardiovascular Residency Programs
• Community Hospitals

The performance measures used in the 2007 study are:

1. Risk-Adjusted Medical (AMI and CHF) Patient Mortality Index
2. Risk-Adjusted Surgical (PCI and CABG) Patient Mortality Index
3. Risk-Adjusted Complications Index (includes post-operative hemorrhages and post-operative infections)
4. Core Measures Score (includes AMI and CHF core measures)
5. Percentage of CABG Patients with Internal Mammary Artery Use
6. Procedure Volume Threshold
7. Severity-Adjusted Average Length of Stay
8. Severity- and Wage-Adjusted Cost per Case

For full details, the 2007 100 Top Hospitals study abstract is now available! Click here for more information or to order.

Make the 100 Top Hospitals study work for you:

Want to see how your hospital scored on the 100 Top Hospitals measures? Order a Results Report to see how you compare.

To understand how your hospital's 5-year performance improvement compares with your peers, order a Performance Improvement Leaders Report.

To understand what a 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks For Success award means, download the brochure A Guide to the 100 Top Hospitals Cardiovascular Award.

For more information, email the 100 Top Hospitals Coordinator at th.pubs@thomson.com or call Thomson Healthcare Publications at (800) 568-3282 (option #3).