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Abbott Northwestern Hospital named one of the nation's 100 top cardiovascular hospitals by Solucient
MINNEAPOLIS 10/29/2004--Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis has been named one of the nation's 100 top cardiovascular hospitals by Evanston, Ill.-based Solucient®. Abbott Northwestern is one of three Allina hospitals named to the list. Allina’s Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids and United Hospital in St. Paul were also included.
The annual Solucient award for cardiovascular services objectively measures performance on key criteria at the nation's top performing acute-care hospitals.
The 2004 Solucient 100 Top Hospitals®: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study appears in the Oct. 25 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine. As the nation's leading source of information products for the healthcare industry, Solucient provides tools and vital insights that healthcare managers use to improve the performance of their organizations. Solucient's expertise and proven solutions enable providers, payers and pharmaceutical companies to drive business growth, manage costs and deliver high quality care.
“This latest recognition underscores the fact that our patients have access to health care that is among the best in the nation. With cardiovascular disease as the nation’s number one killer, it’s reassuring to know that the residents of Minnesota can turn to Allina’s Abbott Northwestern, United and Mercy Hospitals for some of the best care in the country for treating heart disease,” said Dick Pettingill, president and CEO of Allina Hospitals & Clinics. “We are thrilled to be recognized for the fourth time since 1999 as one of the nation’s top cardiovascular hospitals,” stated Denny DeNarvaez, president of Abbott Northwestern. “Our physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals work extremely hard to provide the best possible care for our patients.”
Among the key findings:
· Although they are sicker than ever before, more coronary bypass patients across the nation are surviving surgery, and at higher than anticipated rates. The Solucient 100 Top Hospitals® Cardiovascular award winners are leading the nation in this new trend.
· The results showed a significant increase in the severity of co-morbidities and complications, which translated into a higher "expected" death rate of five more patients per 1000 by 2003. However, contrary to this expected rise in CABG mortality, the study shows the reverse: a significant decrease in the actual death rate of five patients per 1000 by 2003.
· If cardiovascular services in all acute-care hospitals performed at the same level as the hospitals with the nation's top cardiovascular services, 4,200 additional cardiovascular patients could survive each year; and an additional 1,600 patients could be complication-free.
· Winning hospitals are 35 percent less likely than non-winners to have post-operative infections and 20 percent less likely than non-winners to have post-operative hemorrhage for patients undergoing CABG or percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).
· Winning hospitals annually perform twice as many bypass surgeries and PCIs, including angioplasties, as their peers.
· Cardiovascular patients at winning hospitals return to everyday life faster than those at non-winning hospitals. Patients at the winning hospitals were released more than a half-day earlier than patients at peer hospitals.
· Average cardiovascular-related costs for benchmark hospitals were nearly 13 percent lower than at peer hospitals.
The sixth edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals®: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study analyzed acute-care hospitals nationwide using detailed empirical performance data from publicly available Medicare MedPAR data and Medicare cost reports. The measures were calculated for three classes of hospitals with the following number of winners in each:
· Teaching with Cardiovascular Residency Programs - 30 winners
· Teaching without Cardiovascular Residency Programs - 40 winners
· Community - 30 winners
Solucient® scored facilities in seven key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, complications, percentage of CABG patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage and severity-adjusted average cost.
More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com. Copies of the 100 Top Hospitals report can be purchased by calling Solucient at 1-800-568-3282 or logging on to www.100tophospitals.com.
Minneapolis-based Allina Hospitals & Clinics is a non-for-profit, health care organization serving communities throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Allina owns and operates 11 hospitals, 42 clinics, hospice services, pharmacies, home oxygen and medical equipment, and emergency medical transportation services. Allina Hospitals & Clinics can be found online at allina.com and the latest health information is at medformation.com.
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