Most Innovative Acute Care Hospitals - 2007 Welcome to the FierceHealthcare Hospital Innovators Awards! These awards honor some of the most innovative acute care hospitals that are stepping outside of "business as usual" and getting special things done. Some are strikingly original, and others are just doing a great job of solving common industry problems. Several have built successful programs by studying high-performing companies in unrelated industries like manufacturing, retail, aerospace and consumer electronics, while others turned inward for inspiration. Each story offers ideas worth considering. As I did my research, it was interesting to note what didn't turn up:

• If the research is any indication, hospitals don't generally look at retail clinics as important to their business. I'd argue that soon, they will. (Next year’s Hospital Innovators may very well cite a few facilities for smart ventures in this arena.)
• While they may have great relationships with their physicians, we didn't find any hospitals that brag about it. Maybe that's because relationships don't lend themselves to a trendy formula—or maybe because new models of cooperation haven't emerged yet.
• For non-profits, it's increasingly becoming critical to quantify and publicize their community outreach investments, not only to rally the public but to keep state and federal tax authorities off of their back. While I know these efforts are underway, they didn't pop up during my research, and that's the problem.
• We didn't hear much about new ventures with specialists, though we know they're going on in a lot of communities. I think this is because many are at the preliminary investment stage, but it may also be because hospitals are struggling to find financial relationships which are both legally kosher and strategically smart.

As you'll see, we've attempted to take a look at a broad cross-section of industry issues, including staff recruitment and retention, supply chain management, patient-centered care, IT innovation, price and quality data transparency and facilities design. We know that for every category, there are probably many other hospitals that are headed in the same direction or doing some of the same things. We don't mean to suggest that a given hospital is the one-and-only, but to give readers some food for thought and give some worthwhile efforts a high-five. We hope you come away with some new tools and ideas that move your own efforts forward. So in no particular order, here's our picks for this year:

1.	Memorial Hospital-South Bend [0]	6.	Sisters of Mercy [0]
2.	Licking Memorial Hospital [0]	7.	St. Joseph's Hospital [0]
3.	University of Pittsburgh Medical Center [0]	8.	Griffin Hospital [0]
4.	Winona Health [0]	9.	Cedars-Sinai Medical Center [0]
5.	Windber Medical Center [0]	10.	Morton Plant Mease Health Care [0]