Church-owned health systems deliver significantly better quality and more efficient care than secular not-for-profit systems, according to a study released yesterday by Thomson Reuters. Investor-owned systems ranked the lowest in performance among four types of ownership.
"Our data suggest that the leadership of health systems owned by churches may be the most active in aligning quality goals and monitoring achievement of mission across the system," Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Reuters, said in a statement.
To assess the effects of ownership type on performance, researchers looked at 255 health systems with two or more short-term, general, non-federal hospitals and compared them according to eight metrics that address clinical quality and efficiency. They include medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay, 30-day mortality rate, 30-day readmission rate, adherence to clinical standards of care, and Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) patient survey scores.
To learn more:
- read the Thomson Reuters report on Differences in Health System Quality Performance by Ownership
- read the Thomson Reuters press release