Friday, January 17, 2003

Piedmont Hospital is among nation's top 100

Piedmont Hospital has been selected as one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals in a health care industry study.

Piedmont achieved excellence in the large community hospital category based on quality of care, efficiency of operations and sustainability of overall performance. The hospital was the only metro Atlanta hospital selected as well as the only hospital of its size in the state of Georgia.

The study, the ninth 100 Top Hospitals®: National Benchmarks for Success, was conducted by Solucient, an Evanston, Ill.-based healthcare information company, and is based solely on objective, quantitative performance data that is consistent across all U.S. hospitals.

Data is analyzed in groups based on hospital size and teaching status.

"Our employees are the true winners of this honor," said Robert Maynard, president and chief executive officer. "Today, we are treating the sickest of patients, and this distinction clearly demonstrates employee dedication to deliver quality, efficient care."

Piedmont Hospital was founded in 1905 as a 10-bed sanatorium. For the better part of a century, Piedmont has grown with Atlanta and the community to set high standards by combining the best professional staff with the most advanced technology.

Today, Piedmont Hospital is a 500-bed acute tertiary care facility offering all major medical, surgical and diagnostic services. Located on 26 acres in the heart of Buckhead, Piedmont Hospital is a private, not-for-profit organization with 3,000 employees and a medical staff of more than 800 physicians.

As an analysis to identify benchmark hospitals, the study revealed that if all U.S. acute care hospitals were to perform at the level of the 100 Top Hospitals, approximately 57,000 lives could be saved annually and expenses could decline an estimated $9.5 billion, resulting in lower health care costs and savings to Americans.

"Winners of the 100 Top award are hospitals that are committed to constant performance improvement, to bringing better services to their patients, their families and their communities," said Jean Chenoweth, Solucient's executive director of the 100 Top Hospitals program.

Other findings include:

The 100 Top Hospitals were found to have more successful outcomes than their peers, providing complication-free care 18 percent more often than peers and helping patients survive life-threatening illness 10 percent more often than their peers.

The 100 Top Hospitals consistently employ fewer staff, but pay hospital staff more -- nearly $2,000 more per employee in annual salary and benefits -- than do peer hospitals. Moreover, the benchmark hospitals tend to maintain higher ratios of registered nurses, a more expensive resource, according to a recent related Solucient study.

While the Southern and Central Regions have the highest numbers of winners (31 and 29, respectively), hospitals selected as 100 Top Hospitals in the Northeast jumped from only 15 winners last year to a total of 26 in the new study.

The study analyzed the nation's hospitals using empirical performance data from the Medicare MEDPAR aggregated claims database and other publicly available sources. This methodology ensures that the focus is on statistical rather than anecdotal evidence of top performance. The measures stress quality of care, efficiency of operations and sustainability of overall performance, and are calculated for five classes of hospitals:

Major teaching - 16 hospitals

Teaching - 25 hospitals

Large community, 250 or more beds - 20 hospitals

Medium community, 100 to 250 Beds - 20 hospitals

Small community, 25 to 99 beds - 20 hospitals

Eight measures were used to determine performance: risk-adjusted mortality index, risk-adjusted complications index, severity-adjusted average length of stay, expense per adjusted discharge, profitability, proportion of outpatient revenue, total asset turnover ratio, and data quality.

Solucient is the leading source of health care business intelligence. Its mission is to provide comprehensive, results-oriented information to drive business growth, manage costs, and deliver quality care.

Solucient's expertise and proven solutions enable providers, payers, employers, and pharmaceutical companies to achieve results and realize value. By bridging the gap between data and information, knowledge and value, Solucient drives intelligent business decisions. For more information, visit the Solucient Web site at www.solucient.com