National Study Shows MCGHealth Among the Top 100 for Patient Safety, Quality

MCGHealth

MCGHealth is among the top 100 hospitals in the nation in patient safety and quality of care according to the “Thomson 100 Top Hospitals® National Benchmarks for Success” , This study annually examines the performance levels of U.S. hospitals and objectively identifies the 100 benchmark hospitals based on the two most recent years of data. The winners from the 15th edition of the study were announced in the March 17, 2008, edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

The study finds that the 100 Top Hospitals have higher survival rates and more complication-free patients, all while maintaining financial stability. Further, the study estimates that if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those at the winning hospitals:

• More than 120,000 additional patients would survive each year
• There would be 138,000 fewer patient complications each year
• Expenses would decline by an aggregate $6.23 billion a year
• The hospital stay for the average patient would decrease by more than half a day

“What does it take to be among the top 100 hospitals in the nation? It takes three things: outstanding clinical quality, well-run operations and responsible financial management. Sounds easy, but it isn’t. Our goal has been to earn our place on this prestigious list ever since we were first named in 2003, with emphasis on ‘earn’. Our faculty and staff must be very proud of themselves and rightly so because this is the top award in health care,” said Don Snell, President and CEO of MCGHealth.

MCGHealth is one of 15 major teaching hospitals named to the list for 2007 – the only medical center in Georgia to achieve this honor. “This achievement puts us in excellent company. Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and the University of Michigan Hospitals & Health Centers are just a couple of the nationally recognized health care providers among our peers,” Snell said.

Thomson identifies the selected hospitals on the basis of eight criteria:

Risk-adjusted mortality
Risk-adjusted complications
Risk-adjusted patient safety
Core measures score
Severity-adjusted average length of stay
Case mix- and wage-adjusted expense per discharge
Operating profit margin
Cash to total debt ratio

For more information on the 100 Top Hospitals study or to see a list of the 2007 winners, go to 100tophospitals.com.

About the 100 Top Hospitals National Award

About the
Performance Measures

About Thomson Healthcare