Fast Facts:
100 Top Hospitals®: National Benchmarks for Success — 2005

WHAT IS IT?

The 13th edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals®: National Benchmarks for Success study identifies industry benchmarks by recognizing U.S. hospitals that demonstrate superior clinical, operational, and financial performance.

WHO CONDUCTED THE STUDY?

The study is presented by Solucient.

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?

The study was released on February 27, 2006.

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 five comparison groups according to bed size, teaching status, and residency program involvement. Within the comparison groups, we ranked hospitals on the basis of their performance on key measures 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?

• Winners of the 100 Top Hospitals National award tend to have a higher percentage of patients requiring more complex treatment or admission to the hospital than EDs at non-winners. Benchmark hospitals were approximately 9 percent more likely to have higher complexity or admitted patients from the ED, after adjusting for hospital region and class.
• The 100 Top Hospitals have better patient safety as indicated by risk-adjusted Patient Safety Indicator (PSI) rates that were significantly lower than non-winners for nine of the 11 PSIs studied.
• Benchmark hospitals were also less likely to experience adverse outcomes, also known as medical injuries, than peer hospitals. The presence of any of adverse result, as defined by the PSI list, significantly and negatively impacted the risk of death, patient length of stay (LOS) and cost per case.
• If all acute care hospitals performed at the same level as the nation's benchmark hospitals, as many as 106,312 more Medicare patients could survive and an additional 117,000 patient stays could be complication-free each year — at an estimated annual savings of $7.6 billion.
• For the second straight year, the Midwest region was home to the highest number of national benchmark hospitals, confirming a shift from the South, which previously had the highest number of national award winners for nearly a decade.
• For the first time, a hospital — Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Evanston Ill. — has achieved national benchmark status 11 times.
• Survival rates were higher at benchmark hospitals (96.9 percent) compared to the typical peer hospital (96.2 percent), translating into tens of thousands of lives saved.
• The 100 Top Hospitals treated sicker patients requiring more complex treatment, yet had better patient outcomes and lower costs.
• Salary and benefits were $1,500 per year higher per full-time staff member than at peer hospitals.

• Major Teaching - 15 winners
• Teaching - 25 winners
• Large Community, 250+ Beds - 20 winners
• Medium Community, 100 to 249 Beds - 20 winners
• Small Community, 25 to 99 Beds - 20 winners

WHO DO I CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION?

All media inquiries should be made to Ginny Sexton at Solucient; gsexton@solucient.com.

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