ABOUT 100 TOP HOSPITALS: NATIONAL BENCHMARKS

This annual study identifies the nation's top organization-wide performers, using the two most recent years of data.

Findings

The 2008 100 Top Hospitals® National award winners have higher survival rates, keep more patients complication-free, and attract more patients — all while maintaining financial stability. We estimate that if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those in the 100 Top Hospitals winners:
  • More than 107,500 additional patients would survive each year
  • More than 132,000 patient complications would be avoided annually
  • Expenses would decline by an aggregate $5.9 billion a year
  • The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day
The 100 Top Hospitals award winners also:
  • Reward their employees with better pay
  • Have better patient safety, saving lives and dollars
  • Have higher patient satisfaction, overall

Methods

For the past decade, the Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters has consistently identified benchmark practices by using solely objective statistical analyses of public data sources, and by constantly improving and refining the study performance measures, thresholds for inclusion, and methodologies.

The main steps we take in selecting the 100 Top Hospitals National benchmark hospitals are:
  • Building the database of hospitals, including special selection and exclusion criteria:
    This study focuses on short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of patients. The data come from public sources including the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data set, and the Medicare Cost Report.
  • Classifying hospitals into comparison groups according to bed size and teaching status:
    • Major Teaching Hospitals
    • Teaching Hospitals
    • Large Community Hospitals
    • Medium Community Hospitals
    • Small Community Hospitals
  • Scoring hospitals on a set of weighted performance measures centered on clinical excellence, operating efficiency and financial health, and patient satisfaction:
    1. Risk-adjusted mortality index
    2. Risk-adjusted complications index
    3. Risk-adjusted patient safety index
    4. Core Measures score
    5. Severity-adjusted average length of stay
    6. Expense per adjusted discharge, case mix- and wage-adjusted
    7. Profitability (operating profit margin)
    8. Cash to total debt ratio
    9. HCAHPS score (patient rating of overall hospital performance)


  • Determining the 100 Top Hospitals award winners by ranking hospitals relative to their comparison group

For full details, download the 2008 100 Top Hospitals National study abstract or click here to order a softbound copy.

Make the 100 Top Hospitals study work for you:

Want to see how your hospital scored on the 100 Top Hospitals measures and how your long-term performance improvement compares with your peers? Order a National Benchmarks Report.

To understand what a 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks award means, download the brochure A Guide to the 100 Top Hospitals.

For more information, email the 100 Top Hospitals Coordinator at healthcare.pubs@thomsonreuters.com or call us at +1 800 568 3282 (option 3).

The New Everest Award for National Benchmarks

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Find out more about the Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals.