Hospitals

HealthGrades gives eight Ohio hospitals A+ for clinical excellence

HealthGrades, the independent health-care ratings organization, has named eight Ohio hospitals to its America’s 50 Best Hospitals for 2009 list. Hospitals named to the list “represent an elite group of the highest-performing health care organizations in the nation,” HealthGrades says.

By Mary Vanac on February 24, 2009

HealthGrades, the independent health-care ratings organization, named eight Ohio hospitals to its America’s 50 Best Hospitals for 2009 list.

Hospitals named to the list “represent an elite group of the highest-performing health care organizations in the nation” that have maintained patient outcomes in the top 5 percent of the nation from 1999 through 2007, HealthGrades said in a release.

Ohio hospitals named to the Top 50 list:

sponsored content

A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma

A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.

By PurpleLab
  • Akron General Medical Center, Akron
  • Christ Hospital, Cincinnati
  • Grandview and Southview Medical Centers, Dayton
  • Hillcrest Hospital (Cleveland Clinic), Mayfield Heights
  • Parma Community General Hospital, Parma
  • St. John West Shore Hospital (University Hospitals/Sisters of Charity), Westlake
  • Southwest General Health Center (University Hospitals), Middleburg Heights
  • Summa Health Systems Hospitals, Akron

To make its list, HealthGrades buys outcome data on nearly every hospital that reports to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal health care insurance agency. HealthGrades analyzes the data, looking at death and complication incidents for 26 procedures and diagnoses that range from bowel obstruction to stroke to total knee replacement.

HealthGrades assigns star ratings to hospitals, based on its analysis. Ratings of 3.42 or higher for 2005, 2006 and 2007 earned hospitals places on the Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence for 2009 list.

presented by

From this year’s list, which was released in January, distinguished hospitals had:

  • 27 percent overall lower death rates for 17 procedures, adjusted for risk
  • 8 percent lower complications rates for nine procedures, adjusted for risk.

Maryland and Minnesota tied with 43.75 percent of eligible hospitals named to the distinguished hospital list this year. Ohio came in third on the list with 39.39 percent (22 out of 66) of eligible hospitals.

HealthGrades then narrows the list to the 50 hospitals that earned the distinguished rating for the most consecutive years from 1999 through 2007.