Healthgrades Best Hospitals rankings announced: How much emphasis does your CDI or coding departments place on these or other awards?

Survey says: 57% place focus on these methodologies, 40% do not 

By Brian Murphy

Healthgrades recently announced its top 50, top 100, and top 250 hospitals awards. I’ve listed the 50 hospitals below; do you see your home state or hospital represented?

Per its website, Healthgrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award™ recognizes 50 hospitals as the top 1% in the nation for consistent clinical excellence, based on an analysis of 31 risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates for common procedures and conditions. These include COPD, heart attack, heart failure, coronary interventional procedures, respiratory failure, pneumonia, sepsis, and others. In-hospital complications-based procedures and conditions include hip fracture treatment, back and neck surgeries, total hip and total knee procedures, and many more.

The top 50 hospitals must also demonstrate excellence over time, receiving a Healthgrades America’s 250 Best Hospitals Award in consecutive years over an extended period of time.

Risk-adjusted mortality and complication rates are tracked using MedPAR data and a documentation query leading to a more accurate code assignment can move a patient in and out of a measure. So while actual clinical performance and quality of care is a huge factor in Healthgrades performance, so too is the work of mid-revenue cycle professionals.

Quality matters—or at least, public perception of quality. A recent Healthgrades survey found that 76% of consumers would only choose a hospital with high quality ratings for their condition or procedure. Some hospitals—especially those in competitive markets—place a huge emphasis on their rankings, pinning copies of their Healthgrades placement on their bulletin boards, in their email signatures, or take out newspaper ads and buy billboard space on major interstates to celebrate wins.

For others it seems to be ho-hum news.

How much of a focus does your CDI and/or coding program place on Healthgrades performance or other awards? I asked this poll on LinkedIn and received the following results:

  • Major emphasis: 34%
  • Somewhat; secondary goal: 23%
  • Not a focus of our work: 40%
  • Other: 3%

Healthgrades top 50 hospitals

Arizona

Mayo Clinic Hospital

California

Alta Bates Summit Medical Center

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Memorial Medical Center

Mills-Peninsula Medical Center

Northridge Hospital Medical Center

Providence Holy Cross Medical Center

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas

Stanford Health Care

Sutter Roseville Medical Center

UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center

Connecticut

Norwalk Hospital

Florida

AdventHealth Orlando

Mayo Clinic in Florida

Georgia

Emory University Hospital

Emory University Hospital Midtown

Illinois

Advocate Lutheran General Hospital

Ascension Alexian Brothers

Carle Foundation Hospital

Kansas

University of Kansas Hospital

Massachusetts

Lahey Hospital and Medical Center

Michigan

Ascension Providence Hospital-Southfield Campus

Beaumont Hospital, Troy

Minnesota

Mayo Clinic Health System Mankato

Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Marys Campus

North Carolina

Mission Hospital

New Jersey

Morristown Medical Center

Overlook Medical Center

New York

Lenox Hill Hospital

Stony Brook University Hospital

Vassar Brothers Medical Center

Ohio

Bethesda North Hospital

Mercy Health-Fairfield Hospital

Mercy Health-West Hospital

ProMedica Toledo Hospital

Summa Health System-Akron Campus

The Jewish Hospital-Mercy Health

Pennsylvania

Chester County Hospital

Lancaster General Hospital

Lankenau Medical Center

Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

Reading Hospital

Riddle Memorial Hospital

St. Luke’s Hospital-Bethlehem Campus

Wellspan Chambersburg Hospital

Texas

Houston Methodist Hospital

Washington

EvergreenHealth Medical Center-Kirkland

Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center

Wisconsin

Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital

References

Interested in learning more about this topic and how Norwood can help improve your organization’s quality scorecards? Send an email to consulting@norwood.com

healthgrades rankings

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