Dive Brief:
- Colorado-based Healthgrades, an online resource for information on physicians and hospitals, named the top 50 and 100 "Best Hospitals" in the U.S. for 2017 on Tuesday.
- The District of Columbia and 22 states do not have any hospitals mentioned in either list this year.
- The company used Medicare inpatient data on 32 procedures and health conditions for its assessment.
Dive Insight:
California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania are the states with the largest numbers of hospitals Healthgrades recognized for their "consistent clinical excellence" over three consecutive years for those in the top 100 list and six years for the top 50, which represent the top 2% or 1% hospitals in the country, respectively, according to the healthcare company. These hospitals outperformed their peers in risk of mortality, clinical outcomes and patient engagement. An average of 179,438 American lives "could potentially be saved" if all hospitals performed similarly to those that were recognized in the top 100, the company stated.
With MACRA's implementation of the Quality Payment Program, the competition among hospitals will likely be greater given that clinicians' payments will rely on the quality of services provided, rather than quantity. "Healthcare consumerism is requiring hospitals and health systems to innovate in a variety of areas, including quality, to meet growing expectations about the level of care, personalization and convenience," Healthgrades CMO Brad Bowman said in a statement.
However, research suggests these ratings should be taken with a grain of salt as the rating systems most commonly used by patients use significantly different methodologies. Also, even the best hospitals have poor clinical outcomes, according to a 2016 analysis conducted by FairChex using surveys from Healthgrades and the LeapFrog Group, among others.
Hospitals in the top 50 in California include Cedars - Sinai Medical Center, which also made the list last year, Kaiser Permanente Woodlands Hills Medical Center and Scripps Green Hospital. California also has the largest number of hospitals in this list compared to all other states. The Carle Foundation Hospital, Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital and St. Alexius Medical Center are some of the ones in Illinois, where all of the named hospitals were in the top 50.