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Premier Healthcare Alliance Recognizes Nation's Top Hospitals for Commitment to High-Quality Patient Care, Operational Efficiency

Posted on: Thursday, 12 June 2008, 12:00 CDT

Premier healthcare alliance last night recognized the nation's top hospitals for their commitment to outstanding patient care and operational efficiency with the 2008 Premier Award for Quality (AFQ). Premier announced the 26 winners of the award, out of more than 3,800 eligible hospitals nationwide, at Premier's annual Breakthroughs Conference and Exhibition in Nashville.

The AFQ recognizes leading healthcare organizations that efficiently provide outstanding patient care and consistently set the standard in clinical excellence nationwide. Distinguished by its consideration of performance-based criteria, including clinical quality outcomes, resource utilization, and clinical process indicators, the AFQ measures top performers at the overall hospital level.

"The Award for Quality differentiates its winners as industry leaders by recognizing clinical excellence in both quality of care and operational efficiency," said Stephanie Alexander, senior vice president of Premier Healthcare Informatics. "Premier is pleased to honor this elite group of hospitals for the high quality of patient care they offer to improve the health of their communities."

All acute care inpatient facilities in the United States that submitted data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the CMS Hospital Compare project were considered for the AFQ. Using MedPar 2006 data, Quality and Efficiency Indexes were calculated for 62 disease groups and at the overall hospital level. Quality was measured by the incidence of three adverse outcomes: mortality, morbidity and complications, which are combined into a single Quality Index using the preference weightings from the Corporate Hospital Rating Project. The efficiency index was generated using length of stay to proxy for resource utilization.

Acute care facilities attaining the top 1 percent designation are identified as having scores in the top two quintiles for process of care and in 10 out of 62 disease groups and at the overall hospital level for quality and efficiency. Additionally, hospitals had measures for quality and efficiency that were equal to or exceeded expected outcomes.

2008 Award for Quality winners are:

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center - Boston

Brockton Hospital - Brockton, Mass.

Comanche County Hospital - Lawton, Okla.

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian - Newport Beach, Calif.

Main Line Hospitals Lakenau - Wynnewood, Pa.

McKee Medical Center - Loveland, Colo.

Mercy General Hospital - Sacramento, Calif.

Mercy Medical Center North Iowa - Mason City, Iowa

Metrohealth Medical Center - Cleveland

Palomar Medical Center - Escondido, Calif.

Providence St. Vincent Medical Center - Portland, Ore.

Saint Vincent Health Center - Erie, Pa.

Springfield Regional Medical Center - Springfield, Ohio

SSM St. Joseph Health Center - St. Charles, Mo.

SSM St. Joseph Hospital Kirkwood - St. Louis

SSM St. Mary's Health Center - St. Louis

St. Joseph's Hospital - Marshfield, Wis.

St. Thomas Hospital - Nashville, Tenn.

Tufts Medical Center - Boston

University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics - Madison, Wis.

UPMC Northwest Medical Center - Seneca, Pa.

UPMC Horizon Hospital - Greenville, Pa.

W.A. Foote Memorial Hospital - Jackson, Miss.

Western Pennsylvania Hospital - Pittsburgh

Yale-New Haven Hospital - New Haven, Conn.

York Hospital - York, Pa.

Additional information about the AFQ and related methodology can be found at: www.premierinc.com/about/news/awards/award-for-quality/index.jsp.

About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient

Serving more than 2,000 U.S. hospitals and 51,000-plus other healthcare sites, the Premier healthcare alliance and its members are transforming healthcare together. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the leading healthcare purchasing networks and the nation's most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information. A subsidiary operates one of the nation's largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups. A world leader in helping healthcare providers deliver dramatic improvements in care, Premier is working with the United Kingdom's National Health Service North West and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to improve hospital performance. Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Washington. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com.

Source: Business Wire

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