|
February 1998
Top 100 Hospitals
Modern Health Care, January 5, 1998, Vol 28, No. 1. pg 40-47.
No Abstract Available
Click here to visit the Modern Healthcare web site
This article appears in one of the widely read weekly business news journals devoted to the health care industry. It focuses on an analytical abstract of 1997´s 100 Top Hospitals: benchmark for success, prepared by the Baltimore-based HCIA. This report has become an annual tradition, and appearing on this list represents a significant achievement in the hospital industry.
This report presents the results of benchmark hospital performances across nine indicators used to judge nearly 3,200 facilities nationwide. The performance model used in this analysis has been selected to provide a valid statistical method for ranking hospitals by simultaneously evaluating various financial, clinical, and operational performance measures, which have proven to be objective and reproducible. For those interested in reviewing the abstract of the results of this study as well as a list of the 101 top performers and complete benchmarking results for five categories of acute care hospitals, an internet address is provided (http://www.hcia.com). Also highlighted in this detailed abstract are benchmark trends within specific hospital provider categories in geographic areas.
In this study a certain number of hospitals were allotted to each category to arrive at the final tally of the "top 100": 20 from a group of 1305 hospitals of fewer than 100 beds; 20 from a group of 1162 hospitals of 100 to 249 beds; 20 from a list of 270 non-teaching hospitals of 250 or more beds; 15 from a group of 99 teaching hospitals of 400 or more beds in major academic medical centers; and 25 from a group 300 less intensive teaching hospitals of 250 or more beds.
Several trends can be drawn from this analysis. First, hospitals from the south and west contain by far the largest concentration of benchmark hospitals. This is viewed as a reflection of how hospitals from these geographic areas have successfully met the challenges of stiff competition and relatively high concentration of managed care. Once again, hospitals in the northeast are under represented in this year�s list of the top 100, assoicated with stronger regulation, which has reduced competition and financial performance.
As seen in earlier editions of this report, investor-owned hospitals are achieving benchmark levels of performance in quality and showing very strong levels of financial sustainability. At the same time the not-for-profit hospitals are maintaining competitive viability, indicating that the not-for-profit hospitals are beginning to meet the challenges of the market place.
From this study it appears, not surprisingly, that the successful hospitals are those rising to the challenges of intense competition.
Analyses of this kind will be increasingly significant indicators of "success" within the highly
competitive realm of acute care hospitals, and, for better or worse, be viewed as a significant measuring stick by which we will all be judged.
Return to the Current Literature Review Front Page
|
