Fast Facts:
Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success — 2005

WHAT IS IT?

The 2005 Solucient 100 Top Hospitals®: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study identifies industry benchmarks by recognizing U.S. heart hospitals that demonstrate superior performance. For details, click here.

WHO CONDUCTED THE STUDY?

This study is presented by Solucient, an Evanston, Ill.-based information company serving the healthcare industry. It is the market leader in providing tools and vital insights that healthcare managers use to improve the performance of their organizations. By integrating, standardizing and enhancing healthcare information, Solucient provides comparative measurements of cost, quality and market performance. Solucient's expertise and proven solutions enable providers, payers and pharmaceutical companies to drive business growth, manage costs and deliver high quality care. For details, click here.

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?

The study was released on Oct. 31, 2005.

WHICH HOSPITALS WON?

For a complete list of winners, click here.

HOW WERE THE WINNERS CHOSEN?

We assigned each hospital in the study group to one of three comparison groups. We analyzed each hospital's performance in seven areas using year 2003 Medicare cost reports and years 2003 and 2004 MedPAR data. Within the comparison groups, we ranked hospitals on the basis of their performance on each of the seven areas relative to other hospitals in their group. We then summed each hospital's performance-measure ranking to arrive at a total ranking for the hospital. The hospitals with the best total ranking in each comparison group were selected as the benchmarks.

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE KEY FINDINGS?

• States with higher rates of revascularization (angioplasty and bypass surgery) for treatment of the most severe form of heart attacks are experiencing higher survival rates, with great variation by state in revascularization rates for these kinds of heart attacks.

• Survival rates for patients with this type of heart attack are equally good whether they are directly admitted for revascularization or are stable enough to be transferred to another facility providing the procedures.

• Winners of the 100 Top Hospitals Cardiovascular award were more likely than peer hospitals to provide revascularization to patients with the most severe heart attacks.

• One kind of post-operative complication for all revascularized patients — post-operative hemorrhage or hematoma — is rapidly declining while another — post-operative sepsis — seems to be increasing.

• If cardiovascular services in all acute-care hospitals performed at the same level as the hospitals with the nation's top cardiovascular services, 10,000 additional cardiovascular patients could survive each year; and an additional 1,100 patients could be complication-free.

• Winning hospitals are 23 percent less likely than non-winners to have post-operative infections and about 20 percent less likely than non-winners to have post-operative hemorrhage for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

• Winning hospitals annually perform as much as 80 percent more bypass surgeries and PCIs, including angioplasties, as their peers.

• Cardiovascular patients at winning hospitals return to everyday life faster than those at non-winning hospitals. Patients at the winning hospitals were released more than a half-day earlier than patients at peer hospitals.

• Average cardiovascular-related costs for benchmark hospitals were nearly 15 percent lower than at peer hospitals.

CAN I GET A COPY OF THE COMPLETE STUDY?

Yes. Members of the media can receive exclusive copies of the study simply by clicking here.

WHAT WAS THE BREAKDOWN OF WINNERS BY CLASS?

The seventh edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals®: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study analyzed acute care hospitals nationwide in three classes with the following number of winners in each:

• Teaching with Cardiovascular Residency Programs - 30 winners
• Teaching without Cardiovascular Residency Programs - 40 winners
• Community - 30 winners

WHO DO I CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION?

All media inquiries should be made to Ginny Sexton at Solucient, (847)424-4358; gsexton@solucient.com.

Home > Media > Cardio study fact sheet