Fast Facts:
Solucient 100 Top Hospitals®:
Performance Improvement Leaders—2004

WHAT IS IT?

The Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: Performance Improvement Leaders study recognizes hospitals and their management teams for leading their facilities to achieve the fastest rate of consistent annual organizational improvement among all U.S. hospitals between 1999 and 2003. For details, click here.

WHO CONDUCTED THE STUDY?

The study is presented by Solucient.

WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?

The study was released on April 25, 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 five comparison groups according to bed size, teaching status, and residency program involvement. We calculated nine performance measure values for each hospital within each comparison group using Medicare cost reports and MedPAR data from years 1999 through 2003. Within the comparison groups, we ranked hospitals on the basis of their performance on each of the nine 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. Seven of the nine performance measures were given equal weight in this ranking; two exceptions are the cashflow to debt ratio and the tangible assets per adjusted discharge measures; which each carry a weight half that of the other measures. The hospitals with the best total ranking in each comparison group were selected for the list.

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE KEY FINDINGS?

This year's performance improvement leaders have lower mortality rates, shorter lengths of stay, and lower expenses compared with a peer group of U.S. hospitals. The study found that PIL hospitals made the following gains between 1999 and 2003:

• Had fewer patient deaths, complications, and adverse safety events than expected.
• Went from being unprofitable to maintaining a healthy positive profit margin.
• Discharged patients three-quarters of a day earlier in 2003 compared to 1999.
• Operating profit margin rose more than six percentage points from -1.55 percent to +4.53 percent, while peer hospitals saw nearly flat profit margins.
• PIL hospitals went from having 17 percent more deaths than expected in 1999 to having 7 percent fewer deaths than expected in 2003.
• Expense per discharged patient rose $399, or 7 percent, at PIL hospitals (over the five years) while it rose $902, or 21 percent, at non-winning hospitals.
• 87 percent of all hospitals studied showed no significant change in profitability.

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

WHO DO I CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION?

All media inquiries should be made to Sharon Parmet at Solucient, (847)424-4265; sparmet@solucient.com.

Home > Media > Performance Improvement Leaders fact sheet