Dive Brief:
- Denver-based Healthgrades has released its 2016 list of the 50 and 100 best U.S. hospitals.
- Hospitals that made the cut had superior clinical outcomes with Medicare patients in at least 21 of the 32 most common inpatient conditions and procedures.
- To encourage people to research hospitals before they get sick, Healthgrades also released a new digital infographic titled, “Hospital Choice: Your life may depend on it.”
Dive Insight:
To rank in the top 50, hospitals must have earned the Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Excellence for six years in a row — putting them in the top 1% of hospitals nationwide. The list includes Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California, Baystate Medical Center in Massachusetts, Maryland’s Medstar Harbor and Good Samaritan Hospitals, and the Heartland Regional Medical Center in Missouri.
Among the 100 Best Hospitals group, the proportion with five-star ratings far exceeded that at other hospitals in a number of critical care areas:
- 63% versus 12% for treatment of heart attack;
- 60% versus 13% for treatment of stroke;
- 80% versus 14% for pneumonia care;
- 46% versus 6% for treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; and
- 94% versus 21% for sepsis response.
In all, hospitals that made the lists spanned 28 states. The results were based on 2012-2014 outcomes data from hospitals in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.