Healthgrades released its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” list this week, with hospitals in 28 states earning the recognition.
The top 50 and top 100 hospitals awards represent the top 1% and 2% of hospitals in the nation, respectively, based on clinical outcomes across common inpatient conditions and procedures. To make the list, hospitals must sustain that performance level for at least five consecutive years.
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“Hospitals that have been named an America’s 50 and 100 Best Hospital by Healthgrades have achieved and sustained high-quality outcomes for their patients over many years and continue to set themselves apart to consumers,” Brad Bowman, M.D., Healthgrades’ chief medical officer, said in an announcement.
Hospitals that made this year’s top 50 list include:
- Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle
- Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids, Michigan
- Morristown (New Jersey) Medical Center
- Mayo Clinic Hospital in Phoenix, Arizona
- Cedars - Sinai Medical Center in West Hollywood, California
- Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts
- MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore
- The University of Kansas Health System
- Lancaster (Pennsylvania) General Hospital
- Houston Methodist Hospital
- Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio
“Our journey to transform healthcare and become the quality leader started nearly two decades ago when we began transforming our organization into one where patients are truly at the center of everything we do,” said Gary S. Kaplan, Chairman and CEO of Virginia Mason Health System, in the statement.
“We’ve built a model where quality and safety are foremost, innovation and collaboration are encouraged, lessons learned are shared broadly and patient engagement is essential to our continuous improvement efforts.”
At Spectrum Health, said Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Tina Freese Decker, a culture of excellence drives the organization to push to be better.
“We have worked collaboratively to establish high-reliability behaviors, ensuring the safety of our patients and team members,” she said.
“We also constantly ask ‘why’ and ‘what can we do better?’ We must continue to go beyond the status quo. Collaboration across our organization is essential to achieving top outcomes for our patients. Outstanding physician leadership, team-based care and trust create the foundation of Spectrum Health’s performance improvement and safety priorities.”
The 23 states with no Healthgrades-designated top 50 or top 100 hospitals include Alaska, Nebraska, Tennessee and Utah.
On average, America’s Best Hospitals outperformed their peers in treating a core group of conditions that account for more than 80% of mortalities in areas evaluated, according to Healthgrades, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, respiratory failure, sepsis and stroke.
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And, the organization says, patients treated in hospitals on the 100 best hospitals list have, on average, a 22.3% lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive this award.
“If all hospitals, as a group, performed similarly to hospitals achieving Healthgrades 2018 America’s 100 Best Hospitals Award, on average, 162,284 lives could potentially have been saved,” the organization said in its announcement.