Meriter Named a Top Performer in National Survey

Meriter Hospital is among the top hospitals in the nation for having demonstrated the fastest, most consistent improvement over five consecutive years according to the Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals (R): Performance Improvement Leaders study. The study examined the performance of more than 2,800 U.S. hospitals on a variety of clinical, financial, operational and patient safety criteria to identify the 100 winners.

Meriter was identified in the teaching hospital category. The only other Wisconsin hospitals named were all Aurora facilities: Aurora West Allis Medical Center, Aurora BayCare Medical Center of Green Bay and Aurora Medical Center in Two Rivers, all in the community hospitals category.

“I’m extremely pleased that Meriter was recognized as a top 100 performer because it reflects the work done everyday, by the entire care team – from nurses to environmental services, clerical staff to physicians,” says Jim Woodward, Meriter Hospital President and CEO. “Providing exceptional patient-centered care is our top priority.”

Overall, U.S. hospitals struggled to improve their performance from 2002 to 2006, the period covered by the study, but the winning hospitals illustrate that rapid, across-the-board improvement is attainable.

“We’ve put a strong emphasis on improving patient safety by reducing all preventable errors and reducing expenses by  continuously eliminating unnecessary costs,” says Woodward.

The hospital assessment project, which dates back to 1993, was formerly called the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals program. Thomson Corporation acquired Solucient, LLC, in 2006. It acquired Reuters earlier this year to form Thomson Reuters.

"This study identifies superior leadership, based on the success of hospital executive teams' long-term strategies for strengthening performance," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Reuters. "These are true 'Good to Great' leadership teams that have focused on improving quality, efficiency, use of evidence-based medicine, and financial stability in order to better serve their patients and communities."

The study rated hospitals on eight factors:

• Patient mortality
• Medical complications
• Patient safety
• Length of stay
• Expenses
• Profitability
• Cash-to-debt ratio
• Use of evidence-based medicine

Researchers evaluated 2,867 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals grouped into five categories: major teaching hospitals, other teaching hospitals, large community hospitals, medium-sized community hospitals, and small community hospitals.

The study analyzed publicly available Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review data, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Hospital Compare data set.

8/14/2008