Thomson Reuters Announces 100 Top Hospitals® for Cardiovascular Care

Ann Arbor, MI . — The Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters today released its annual study identifying the 100 U.S. hospitals that are setting the nation’s benchmarks for cardiovascular care.

The study — 2008 Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals®: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success — examined the performance of 970 hospitals by analyzing clinical outcomes for patients diagnosed with heart failure and heart attacks and for those who received coronary bypass surgery and angioplasties.

A list of the 100 Top Hospitals is provided below.

“These hospitals provide enormous value to their communities because heart disease is still the nation’s number one killer. They have set the new national standard for cardiovascular disease outcomes, process of care, efficiency, and lower costs,” said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs in the Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters.

The study, in its tenth year, found that the 100 Top Hospitals cardiovascular award winners, as a group, performed 63 percent more bypass surgeries and 42 percent more angioplasties than peer hospitals. This may suggest that performance of bypass surgery is increasingly performed in centers of excellence.

While the average mortality rate for cardiovascular patients is very low (3.4 percent), the mortality rate for bypass surgery was 26 percent lower in the 100 Top Hospitals cardiovascular winners. The award-winning hospitals demonstrated higher performance on the evidence-based core measures published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and cost $1,542 less per case, on average.

“The benchmark hospitals demonstrate that the quality of cardiovascular care is still rising across the country,” said Janet Young, MD, senior scientist at the Thomson Reuters Center for Healthcare Improvement. “These hospitals pushed the bar to new levels, particularly in improved survival rates and reduced cost.”

The 100 Top Hospitals study focused on short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients. Thomson Reuters researchers analyzed 2006 and 2007 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, 2007 Medicare cost reports, and data from other sources. They scored hospitals in key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, risk-adjusted complications, core measures score, percentage of coronary bypass patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage- and severity-adjusted average cost.

Hospitals were classified into three comparison groups. The 2008 winners are listed below. (The order of hospitals in the list does not reflect performance ranking.)

Teaching hospitals with cardiovascular residency programs (30 winners):
Mayo Clinic Hospital — Phoenix, AZ
Yale-New Haven Hospital — New Haven, CT
Cleveland Clinic Florida — Weston, FL
Loyola University Medical Center — Maywood, IL
St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital — Indianapolis, IN
Mercy Medical Center–North Iowa — Mason City, IA
Ochsner Medical Center–New Orleans — New Orleans, LA
Maine Medical Center — Portland, ME
University of Maryland Medical Center — Baltimore, MD
UMass Memorial Medical Center — Worcester, MA
Lahey Clinic Medical Center — Burlington, MA
Providence Hospital and Medical Center — Southfield, MI
Henry Ford Hospital — Detroit, MI
William Beaumont Hospital–Royal Oak — Royal Oak, MI
St. John Hospital & Medical Center — Detroit, MI
Abbott Northwestern Hospital — Minneapolis, MN
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center — Lebanon, NH
Hackensack University Medical Center — Hackensack, NJ
North Shore University Hospital — Manhasset, NY
Good Samaritan Hospital — Cincinnati, OH
Geisinger Medical Center — Danville, PA
Allegheny General Hospital— Pittsburgh, PA
The Western Pennsylvania Hospital — Pittsburgh, PA
Lankenau Hospital — Wynnewood, PA
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center — Philadelphia, PA
Vanderbilt University Medical Center — Nashville, TN
Scott and White Memorial Hospital — Temple, TX
VCU Medical Center — Richmond, VA
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics — Madison, WI
Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center — Milwaukee, WI

Teaching hospitals without cardiovascular residency programs (40 winners):
Memorial Regional Hospital — Hollywood, FL
St. Vincent’s Medical Center — Jacksonville, FL
Morton Plant Hospital — Clearwater, FL
St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center — Boise, ID
Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center — Boise, ID
Decatur Memorial Hospital — Decatur, IL
Memorial Hospital of Carbondale — Carbondale, IL
St. Luke’s Hospital — Cedar Rapids, IA
Union Memorial Hospital — Baltimore, MD
Mercy General Health Partners — Muskegon, MI
Bronson Methodist Hospital — Kalamazoo, MI
St. Joseph Mercy Oakland — Pontiac, MI
Henry Ford Macomb Hospitals — Clinton Township, MI
Marquette General Hospital — Marquette, MI
Munson Medical Center — Traverse City, MI
St. Joseph Mercy Hospital — Ann Arbor, MI
St. Cloud Hospital — St. Cloud, MN
Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital — St. Louis Park, MN
St. Joseph’s Hospital — St. Paul, MN
Regions Hospital — St. Paul, MN
Billings Clinic — Billings, MT
Morristown Memorial Hospital — Morristown, NJ
St. Peter’s Hospital — Albany, NY
Rochester General Hospital — Rochester, NY
MeritCare Hospital — Fargo, ND
Altru Hospital — Grand Forks, ND
Riverside Methodist Hospital — Columbus, OH
Mount Carmel West — Columbus, OH
St. Elizabeth Health Center — Youngstown, OH
Forum Health Northside Medical Center — Youngstown, OH
Hamot Medical Center — Erie, PA
PinnacleHealth — Harrisburg, PA
Erlanger Health System — Chattanooga, TN
Memorial Hermann Hospital System — Houston, TX
Corpus Christi Medical Center — Corpus Christi, TX
St. Mark’s Hospital — Salt Lake City, UT
Riverside Regional Medical Center — Newport News, VA
Aspirus Wausau Hospital — Wausau, WI
Saint Joseph’s Hospital — Marshfield, WI
Gundersen Lutheran Health System — La Crosse, WI

Community hospitals (30 winners):
Thomas Hospital — Fairhope, AL
Arizona Heart Hospital — Phoenix, AZ
Banner Heart Hospital — Mesa, AZ
French Hospital Medical Center — San Luis Obispo, CA
Venice Regional Medical Center — Venice, FL
Delray Medical Center — Delray Beach, FL
Edward Hospital — Naperville, IL
Northwest Community Hospital — Arlington Heights, IL
The Indiana Heart Hospital — Indianapolis, IN
Trinity Regional Medical Center — Fort Dodge, IA
King’s Daughters Medical Center — Ashland, KY
Saint Joseph–London — London, KY
Louisiana Medical Center & Heart Hospital — Lacombe, LA
Heart Hospital of Lafayette — Lafayette, LA
St. Joseph Medical Center — Towson, MD
Fairview Southdale Hospital — Edina, MN
Mercy Hospital — Coon Rapids, MN
Nebraska Heart Institute Heart Hospital — Lincoln, NE
St. Alexius Medical Center — Bismarck, ND
Parma Community General Hospital — Parma, OH
Mercy Hospital Fairfield — Fairfield, OH
Southwest General Health Center — Middleburg Heights, OH
Butler Memorial Hospital — Butler, PA
Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota — Sioux Falls, SD
Saint Thomas Hospital — Nashville, TN
Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center — Houston, TX
Heart Hospital of Austin — Austin, TX
Harlingen Medical Center — Harlingen, TX
Doctors Hospital at Renaissance — Edinburg, TX
Providence Regional Medical Center Everett — Everett, WA