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Tuesday, May 25, 2004 – MeritCare Named One of the Nation's 100 Top Hospitals
MeritCare Hospital has been named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® by Solucient. The 11th edition of Solucient's 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success study appears in a special supplement to the May 24th edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.
The award recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in quality of care, operational efficiency, financial performance and adaptation to the business environment. MeritCare is the only hospital in North Dakota on the list. The top 100 hospitals are represented across five hospital classes:
- Major teaching – 15 winners
- Teaching – 25 winners
- Large community, 250+ beds – 21 winners (due to tie)
- Medium community, 100 to 249 beds – 20 winners
- Small community, 25 to 99 beds – 20 winners
"This is a tribute to the level of quality of service and the passion for caring that MeritCare associates provide. This is an award that truly belongs to all of our over 6,200 associates," said Roger Gilbertson, M.D., MeritCare president/CEO.
"The management teams at the 100 Top Hospitals have led their facilities to the highest performance levels in the nation by adopting new approaches that facilitate optimum care for patients, based on their real needs," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president of Solucient's Center for Healthcare Improvement and the 100 Top Hospitals program.
Among the key findings:
- Top 100 hospitals had a nearly 18 percent lower mortality rate than peer hospitals, while patients had 13 percent fewer complications.
- Patients at top 100 hospitals return to everyday life faster than those at peer hospitals. These patients were released nearly half a day sooner, on average, than patients at peer hospitals.
- Expenses per discharge at top 100 hospitals were 16 percent lower than peer hospitals
- Top 100 hospitals pay higher salaries to attract quality staff. Salary and benefits per full-time employee were nearly 3 percent higher than peer hospitals.
- Top 100 hospitals treat more – and sicker – patients than non-winning hospitals. The median Medicare patient case mix index at winning hospitals was 22 percent higher than at peer hospitals. Benchmark hospitals also had 24 percent more admissions per bed.
More information:
- MeritCare Heart Center has been recognized several times by Solucient in a separate report that is published each fall.
- The 11th edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success study analyzed acute care hospitals nationwide using data from 2002, including publicly available MedPAR data and Medicare cost reports.
- The study scored facilities according to key measures: risk-adjusted mortality and risk adjusted complications, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, growth in percent of community served, cash flow to total debt ratio, tangible assets per adjusted discharge, and coding specificity.
- For more information, please visit http://www.modernhealthcare.com
MeritCare is a not-for-profit, integrated hospital and clinic system headquartered in Fargo, N.D. Founded in the early 1900s as St. Luke's Hospital and Fargo Clinic, today MeritCare is comprised of a 583-bed hospital in two Fargo locations, 383 doctors and a network of 33 clinics in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.