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Post details: "Best" Hospitals in the U.S.?

"Best" Hospitals in the U.S.?

May 26th, 2006

Is it possible to be a world-class hospital without being an academic medical center? If so, give me some examples and tell me what they do better than anyone else. (one example that will never be on anyone's list, but is one my list is Nick Jacob's hospital, Windber)

besthospitals

Don't look at the USNews "Best Hospitals" list - those are all academic hospitals, or at least teaching hospitals. That's even part of the criteria - to be part of the Council of Teaching Hospitals. Beyond that, they use physician surveys to gauge "reputation" and looked at mortality rates.

One place to start may be the "Most Wired Hospitals" List. Criteria included how IT is utilized within the hospital's biz processes, customer service, safety/quality, workforce, and public health/safety. Interestingly enough, of the US News Best 16 Hospitals, 14 top hospitals are not on the Most Wired List:

US News Top Hospitals Not on the Top 100 Most Wired List
#1 Johns Hopkins
#2 Mayo
#3 Mass Genn
#4 Cleveland Clinic
#5 UCLA
#6 Barnes-Jewish Hospital / Wash U
#7 NY Pres
#9 University of Washington Medical Center
#10 University of California, SF
#11 University of Michigan
#12 Brigham and Women's Hospital
#14 University of Chicago Hospitals
#16 Stanford

In fact, the only hospitals to be on both lists are: #8 Duke University Medical Center and #15 Hospital of U Penn. Does that strike anyone else as kinda strange? You'd think that top hospitals would be IT-savvy. Nonetheless, I digress.

Moving on, we could also look at Solucient's "Top 100 Hospitals" whereby they look at 4 things: clinical excellence, operating efficiency, financial health, and responsiveness to the community. This one is by far the most "businessy" of the lists. And of course, patients (and physicians) really don't care about Solucient's list or the H&HN Most Wired list.

Well, let me ask the question I'm really trying to ask: this blog has been dedicated to helping hospitals become "world-class" organizations. if you don't happen to be an academic medical center, you really can't become a "destination" hospital that people would fly to. Given that, can you really ever have the reputation as a "Best Hospital." And thus, can you really ever be a world-class organization?

Of course, the answer is "yes." There are plenty of world-class organizations that aren't world-renown or known by most. So, what are some other ways to excel? How do non-academic hospitals knock the ball out of the park? Is there anything you do to set your hospital apart from all others that causes patients to drive past other hospitals to go to yours?

11 comments

Comments:

Comment from: Warren Allan Johnson [Visitor] · http://unsolicitedmarketingadvice.blogspot.com

Another list to consider is HealthGrade's Distinquished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence. Unlike the other lists mentioned, HealthGrades' approach is based solely on an analysis of clinical outcomes.
http://www.healthgrades.com/media/dms/pdf/DHACE2006StudyFinalFeb06.pdf

05/28/06 @ 19:42

Comment from: J.T. Lee [Visitor]

Doesn't HealthGrade's charge a large fee to those "Disguished" hospitals to use the H.G. name & logo to market themselves as a "HealthGrade's Distinguished" Hospital? There is a tremendous amount of credibility lost when the public hears that these facilities pay an annual fee to be know has a "HealthGrade's Distinguished Hospital".

Sounds like a similar business model as "Whoes Who". "Congratulations you have been chosen to participate... for a fee."

05/30/06 @ 11:55

Comment from: Tom Hitchcock [Visitor] · http://www.hospitalmarketingblog.com

Another source worth exploring or cross-referencing against the other lists mentioned is the Baptist Healing Trust's "Top Healing Hospitals in America."

http://www.baptisthealingtrust.org/rlc/news_detail.php?id=19

05/31/06 @ 19:30

Comment from: Scott Shapiro [Visitor] · http://www.healthgrades.com

I'm with HealthGrades and am happy to see the topic of "what makes a world-class hospital" debated.

For our part, HealthGrades has focused on objective clinical outcomes in rating hospitals -- the track record of what actually happens to patients at each hospital. We not only agree with the idea that lesser-known hospitals can be world class, but we see it every day in our ratings.

HealthGrades rates hospitals based on the mortality and complication rates that hospitals themselves submit to the Federal government. By risk adjusting the data, hospitals can be compared on equal footing, regardless of the severity of illness of their particular patient population.

It's important to note that no hospital can opt in or out of the ratings, and all of the country's hospitals are rated in exactly the same way (which is why J.T. Lee's comment never enters into play).

Certainly quality can be measured in a number of different ways -- outcomes, process, operations, finances and patient satisfaction, to name a handful. But HealthGrades has historically focused on objective clinical outcomes to determine its star ratings.

06/01/06 @ 15:28

Comment from: J.T. Lee [Visitor]

Scott- Thank you for the clarification.

The question still remains to be answered, does Healthgrades charge hospitals to use the Healthgrades name, logo and other graphics when marketing their hospital as a recipient of a Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award?

When a consumer is searching for information about a hospital on the Healthgrades website why is there a charge of $14.95 for reports on hospitals that are "opting out" of the Healthgrades marketing program and the reports for the hospitals who "opted in" the marketing are free?

06/02/06 @ 11:20

Comment from: Scott Shapiro [Visitor] · http://www.healthgrades.com

J.T., you are correct about the licensing of HealthGrades' name and information. It's standard practice among media and information companies to license their copyrighted articles or research for reprinting, as HealthGrades does with hospitals.

Regarding your question about the cost of hospital-quality reports, I'm glad you noticed that some reports are starting to become free on HealthGrades' consumer Web site -- the company has been working on that. Here's why that is happening: HealthGrades is in the business of providing objective quality information to help consumers make smart choices about healthcare providers. Even though the price of a full hospital-quality report is quite low, we know that any cost to consumers limits the number of people who will use the information. As a result, HealthGrades has begun working to make more of its ratings and reports free to consumers through sponsorship by the healthcare provider. From HealthGrades' perspective, the more quality information at consumers' fingertips, the better.

06/02/06 @ 16:08

Comment from: Avery Comarow [Visitor]

I've directed the Best Hospitals rankings from the beginning in 1990. Generally I steer clear of these discussions unless invited, because I don't want to be drawn into a lengthy explanation or defense of the Best Hospitals methodology. Those who think it's legitimate will continue to think so, and those who don't probably will continue to think so. But I do want to clear up the misconception that COTH membership or any teaching function is required. When the rankings project was still an idea and not a reality, I laid down the stipulation that every hospital in the U.S. had to be rankings-eligible. It was obvious then and it's obvious now that academic centers don't have a lock on clinical quality. So we gave hospitals three doors, any of which they could enter to be considered: 1) be a teaching hospital; 2) be affiliated with a teaching hospital; or 3) have requisite kinds of specific medical technologies available. If you look at the rankings, you'll see they include quite a number of facilities that came in through door #3, which pleases me no end. Yes, those at the top of the ranked specialties invariably are academic centers. They're the major referral centers, which admit the toughest cases ("admit" being a key word, since we only consider inpatients, who are by definition the most difficult cases). But the presence of nonteaching hospitals in our rankings demonstrates the high quality of care at those centers. There are nearly 6,000 hospitals in the country. To be ranked #25 or 40 or 50 is no shame. It means the hospital is above the 99th percentile. BTW, all of the details of our methodology are open and available to anyone through www.usnews.com in the form of a .pdf file of a sleep-inducing 100+ pages. And all of the data on ranked hospitals is available at the same website, for free. That's how it's always been.

06/07/06 @ 10:23

Comment from: H.N. Pangrazzi [Visitor]

Are there any procedures available for a quadriplegic to repair/replace a left tuberosity buttock muscle that was destroyed by an ulcer, the ulcer has since healed, which would permit a longer period of time to be in a sitting position?

Thank you.

06/18/06 @ 20:08

Comment from: erie chapman [Visitor] · http://www.journalofsacredwork.typepad.com

I'm glad to see Mr. Hitchcock's reference to the Baptist Healing Trust list of most healing hospitals. The Trust seeks to recognize hospitals who demonstrate excellence in balancing both competence and compassion. Our top ten list, reported in our book Sacred Work (available through amazon or at www.healinghospital.org)and NEWLY REVISED is:
1) Parrish Medical Center - Titusville, Florida.
2) St. Charles Hospital, Bend, Oregon
3) The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
4) Johnson City Medical Center, Tenn.
5) M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital, Houston, Texas.
6) St. Joseph Hospital, Orange, California
7) Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, Mass.
8) Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus, Ohio
9) Monroe Carrell Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt University
10) Wuesthoff Health System, Cocoa Beach, Florida

08/24/06 @ 19:34

Comment from: marian Silvers [Visitor]

I am looking for the best hospital for leukemia

04/26/07 @ 16:05

Comment from: Ann Anderson [Visitor]

I am also looking for the best hospital for the tx of AML

07/14/07 @ 21:47

Post details: "Best" Hospitals in the U.S.?

"Best" Hospitals in the U.S.?

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