Top U.S. hospitals have three common reasons for their success, according to Healthgrades' latest report, which names America's best 50 and 100 hospitals.
C-suite executives from ranked organizations offered insights into the goals, processes and strategies their hospitals use to provide the best care possible and innovate the industry, according to an announcement about the Denver-based research group's report, "Voices of America's Best: Strategies that Sustain Quality." They identified three themes:
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Engaged leadership: Successful hospital executives identify ambitious goals and look to safety standards outside the hospital industry to inspire change within the hospital, the report states. They aren't afraid to measure their outcomes against other top hospitals and use the Institute of Medicine's guidelines to build quality strategies.
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Established culture: The best hospitals strive for patient-centered, quality care both during and after a patient's stay. They encourage all staff to listen to patients, prioritize teamwork and empower one another.
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Continuous improvement: To improve quality, top hospitals use a variety of models to achieve goals. They report transparency and consistency, identify vulnerabilities within the system and test improvement strategies to close gaps.
Furthermore, from 2010 to 2012, the top 100 hospitals saw a 24.53 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate across 19 procedures, compared to other hospitals, according to the announcement. If all U.S. hospitals performed at this level, Healthgrades estimates they potentially could have saved more than 160,000 lives.
Last year, Healthgrades found that patients are far more at risk for complications or death at hospitals receiving low ratings, FierceHealthcare previously reported.
To learn more:
- here's the report
- read the announcement