27 Nov 2007
Thomson Healthcare Study Finds That Hospitals Delivering High-Quality Heart Care Are Efficient and Cost Effective, Too
Results of the Thomson 100 Top Hospitals® Cardiovascular Study Are Announced Today
Stamford, Conn.
November 19, 2007 — U.S. hospitals that are producing the
best clinical outcomes for cardiovascular care also treat heart patients in
less time and at a lower cost, according to a study released today by
Thomson Healthcare (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC).
The study — 2007 Thomson 100 Top Hospitals®: Cardiovascular Benchmarks
for Success — examined the performance of nearly 1,000 U.S. hospitals
by analyzing their outcomes for eight measures related to congestive heart
failure, heart attacks, coronary artery bypass grafts (CABGs), and
percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs), such as angioplasties. A list
of the 100 Top Hospitals, based on these results, is available at http://www.100tophospitals.com/winners/cardiowinners.aspx.
If all cardiovascular hospitals achieved the same results as the 100 Top
Hospitals award winners, according to the study, more than 7,000 lives
would be saved and nearly 750 medical complications would be avoided
annually.
The study, in its ninth year, found that the 100 Top Hospitals award
winners had:
- Hospital stays that were 12 percent shorter, on average, than peer hospitals (5.14 days compared with 5.85 days).
- Costs that averaged 13 percent — or about $2,000 — less per case than peer hospitals.
There also was a large difference in the volume of heart procedures
performed by the cardiovascular award-winning hospitals and their peers.
The winning hospitals performed nearly two-thirds more CABGs and
PCIs.
“An important shift was identified in where CABG patients are being
treated, and this shift in patient volume may be the initial indicator that
transparency is having an impact,” said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice
president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs,
Center for Healthcare Improvement, Thomson Healthcare. “The gap in
CABG volume between the 100 Top Hospitals and the peers grew from 104
percent in 2005 to 122 percent in 2006 in the Community Hospital
category.”
The list of winning hospitals is published in the Nov. 19 issue of
Modern Healthcare magazine.
The study analyzed acute-care hospitals nationwide using detailed empirical
performance data from publicly available 2005 and 2006 Medicare MedPAR data
and 2006 Medicare cost reports. Thomson Healthcare researchers scored
hospitals in eight key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality,
risk-adjusted surgical mortality, risk-adjusted complications, core
measures score, percentage of CABG patients with internal mammary artery
use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage-
and severity-adjusted average cost.
The measures were calculated for three classes of hospitals with the
following number of winners in each:
-
Teaching hospitals with cardiovascular residency programs, 30 winners.
-
Teaching hospitals without cardiovascular residency programs, 40 winners.
-
Community hospitals, 30 winners.
About Thomson Healthcare
Thomson Healthcare is the leading provider of decision support solutions
that help organizations across the healthcare industry improve clinical and
business performance. Thomson Healthcare products and services help
clinicians, hospitals, employers, health plans, government agencies, and
pharmaceutical companies manage the cost and improve the quality of
healthcare.
Thomson Healthcare is a part of The Thomson Corporation, a provider of
value-added information, software tools and applications to professionals
in the fields of healthcare, law, tax, accounting, scientific research, and
financial services. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New
York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). For more
information, visit (www.thomsonhealthcare.com).
Media Notes:
An executive summary of the 2007 Thomson 100 Top Hospitals:
Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study is available to the media
by e-mailing david.wilkins@thomson.com or
by registering at http://www.100tophospitals.com/news/media.aspx.
More information on the 100 Top Hospitals research program is available at
www.100tophospitals.com.
To schedule an interview with Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs, contact David Wilkins at (734) 913-3397 or david.wilkins@thomson.com.
Contacts
David Wilkins
Healthcare
Thomson Reuters
Tel: +1 734 913 3397
Email