Founded in 1993, the 100 Top Hospitals™ awards program has focused on identifying hospital management teams that set benchmark performances for the industry each year. The program is based solely on objective statistical data and represents a balance of efficiency in the delivery of care, quality of care, financial superiority, and adaptation to changes in the environment.

The HCIA-Sachs Institute is cognizant of the fact that excellence in management has not been proven to guarantee excellent clinical care. Accordingly, the 100 Top Hospitals™ Clinical Research Program was initiated in February 1998 to facilitate a better understanding of the clinical differences between 100 Top Hospitals™ vs. non-winners. To date, 110 award winners have agreed to work with the HCIA-Sachs Institute to perform research on detailed clinical performance.

The latest study in the Clinical Research Program series focuses on the treatment of coronary heart disease (CHD). Since CHD is responsible for approximately 20 percent of deaths annually, treatment of the disease should be carefully studied.

The most popular treatment of CHD is the percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA). A PTCA restores the blood flow to the heart through compression of atherosclerotic plaque in the coronary arteries. In 1998, more than 500,000 PTCAs were performed in the United States alone.

Revascularization procedures can be greatly reduced by the addition of stents and a new class of drugs, glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GP IIb/IIIa) inhibitors). This study analyzes the use of stents and GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors — particularly ReoPro, the first such drug approved by the FDA — for PTCA patients at 100 Top Hospitals™ compared with those treated at non-winning hospitals.