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Company Honors Deaconess for Heart Care

Posted on: Wednesday, 2 November 2005, 21:01 CST

By Megan Cooley, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

Nov. 2--Deaconess Medical Center was named one of the nation's top 100 hospitals for heart care in an annual report by Solucient, an Illinois-based research company.

This was the fourth time in seven years that Deaconess has made the list. The hospital's main competitor, Sacred Heart Medical Center, hasn't received the distinction since 1999.

The award means the average cardiac patient is less likely to die at Deaconess and is more likely to have a shorter stay and a smaller bill than patients getting care at hospitals not on the list, hospital CEO Jeff Nelson said.

Spokane residents should feel secure knowing "they don't need to go a long distance to get top care," he said.

Solucient used Medicare patient data to compare Deaconess with other teaching hospitals without cardiovascular residency programs.

It found that an average of 15 more lives a year are saved at hospitals on the list versus those that are not. The cost of heart care at top 100 hospitals is an average of $1,700 less than at non-list hospitals.

Although Sacred Heart didn't make the list, it treats more cardiac patients than Deaconess and is the only hospital in the region that does heart transplants, implants mechanical hearts and uses robotics to perform cardiac surgery.

Those services attract sicker patients to Sacred Heart than to Deaconess, making Solucient's ranking an unfair comparison, said Gerard Fischer, a Sacred Heart vice president.

Sacred Heart puts more stake in the Hospital Quality Incentive program, a federal initiative sponsored by Medicare, than a private company's, he said.

But Deaconess also participates in a Medicare-backed hospital quality initiative and said it's pleased with its performance. The hospitals' performance in several categories can be compared side by side at www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov.

Cardiologist Pierre Leimgruber of Spokane Cardiology said Solucient's ranking illustrates what's been true for years: Deaconess is a regional, if not further-reaching, leader for heart care.

In the past, Spokane was the only place for cardiac care west of the Mayo Clinic and east of Seattle, he said. But as smaller hospitals in places like Yakima and Coeur d'Alene began treating heart problems, fewer patients came to Spokane. No longer hosting those patients and their families in hotels or feeding them in restaurants has been a drain on Spokane's economy, Leimgruber said.

And while less complicated heart problems are often handled in the smaller communities now, the "sickest of the sick" come to Spokane for care, he said.

Deaconess was also on the top 100 list in 1999, 2002 and 2004. Solucient doesn't charge Deaconess a fee to market itself as a top 100 hospital, as some other companies with ranking systems do.

Leimgruber sees the 2005 recognition as another accolade in a string of good news for the hospital. Empire Health Services, Deaconess' parent company, expects to end 2005 in the black just a year after being $35 million in debt.

"People were hearing so many negative stories from this place for a long time," he said. "This (good news) completely exonerates that bad feeling."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

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Source: The Spokesman-Review

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