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University Hospitals of Cleveland Earns 100 Top Hospital Award From Solucient

Posted on: Monday, 13 March 2006, 15:00 CST

CLEVELAND, March 13 /PRNewswire/ -- University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC) was named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals(R) by Evanston, Ill.- based Solucient(R), the leading source of healthcare information products.

The annual award recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in quality of care, operational efficiency, financial performance, and adaptation to the environment. UHC was one of only 15 hospitals nationally to earn the honor of "Major Teaching Hospital."

In addition, for the third consecutive year, UHC also earned 100 Top Hospitals status for Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success.

The 13th edition of Solucient's 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success study appears in the February 27 issue of Modern Healthcare magazine.

"We are pleased to appear on this elite list of hospitals," says Fred C. Rothstein MD, President and CEO of UHC. "This award reflects the dedication and hard work of all of our nearly 8,000 employees."

University Hospitals Health System (UHHS) is celebrating 140 years of caring for Cleveland. Its 947-bed, tertiary medical center, UHC, is an affiliate of Case Western Reserve University (Case). Together, they form the largest center for biomedical research in the State of Ohio. Included in UHC are Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, among the nation's best children's hospitals; Ireland Cancer Center, designated by the National Cancer Institute as a Comprehensive Cancer Center (the nation's highest designation); and MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women.

Southwest General Health Center in Middleburg Heights, a UHHS partner hospital, also earned 100 Top Hospital status by Solucient in Medium Community Hospital category.

Research Highlights

Research showed that emergency departments (EDs) at 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 also 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.

In addition, benchmark hospitals were also less likely to experience adverse outcomes, also known as medical injuries, than peer hospitals. "The 100 Top Hospital award winners continue to demonstrate significant distinctions in provision of value to their communities, as shown by objective differences in clinical outcomes, patient safety, efficient operations and financial stability," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president of Solucient's Center for Healthcare Improvement, which is responsible for the 100 Top Hospitals program. "The heavier volumes of the severely ill treated in EDs of these high-performing hospitals may suggest different approaches to accommodating the physician office-level needs of the community - possibly through partnerships or alternate care services to streamline EDs."

Other key findings of the study include: - 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. - 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.

The 13th edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success study uses a balanced scorecard approach and scores hospitals according to nine key organization-wide measures: risk-adjusted mortality, risk-adjusted complications, patient safety, growth in patient volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, expense per adjusted discharge, profit from operations, cash to debt ratio and tangible assets per discharge.

More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at http://www.100tophospitals.com/. Copies of the 100 Top Hospitals report can be purchased by calling Solucient at (800) 568-3282 or logging on to http://www.100tophospitals.com/. Additional information can be found at http://www.uhhs.com/.

University Hospitals of Cleveland

CONTACT: Mike Ferrari of University Hospitals of Cleveland,+1-216-844-7239

Web site: http://www.100tophospitals.com/http://www.uhhs.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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