DENVER, Jan. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthgrades, the leading online resource that helps consumers search, evaluate, compare and connect with physician and hospitals, today announced the top five percent of U.S. hospitals for clinical outcomes, as determined by an objective evaluation of data on clinical measures in its new report, Hospital Quality Clinical Excellence Report 2013. 

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The 262 hospitals, out of more than 4,500 evaluated, have earned Healthgrades prestigious Distinguished Hospitals Award for Clinical Excellence™.  This recognition is determined by the recipients' best-in-class performance on risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complications across 27 of the most common diagnoses and procedures.

These 262 Distinguished Hospitals, as a group, have a 30.9 percent lower risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality rate across 18 conditions and procedures as compared to all other U.S. hospitals evaluated. Healthgrades estimates that, if all other U.S. hospitals performed at this high level from 2009 through 2011, 164,414 deaths could have potentially been prevented nationwide.  For hospitals to be eligible for this award, they had to perform better than expected in at least 19 of 27 conditions and procedures measured.

"Healthgrades is committed to providing consumers with information to help them make more informed decisions across the continuum of care – including selecting a physician and an affiliated hospital," said Roger Holstein, CEO, Healthgrades.  "This report gives consumers the power to differentiate the likelihood of a better health outcome on the basis of the hospital's objective quality measures."

As shown in American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2013:  Healthgrades Report to the Nation, released in October, there are significant variations in hospital quality across conditions and procedures demonstrating that certain hospitals perform better in specific specialties than others. Distinguished Hospital Award recipients are unique, however, because they exhibit high-quality care across a broad range of clinical specialties.  

With the Hospital Quality Clinical Excellence Report 2013 and the American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2013:  Healthgrades Report to the Nation, Healthgrades provides consumers with a comprehensive analysis that enables them to make informed choices about their healthcare providers, one of the most significant life decisions, before they go to the doctor or hospital. In addition, Healthgrades also provides consumers the ability to evaluate the quality of every hospital at which their physician practices, with a direct link from the physician's profile to each hospital's comprehensive quality ratings.  

"Consumers should know before they go," said Archelle Georgiou, MD, a strategic advisor to Healthgrades. "We have shown that all hospitals are NOT created equal, and selecting the right physician or hospital can mean the difference between having a complication-free surgery or hospitalization. It can even be a matter of life or death."

"We believe our evaluations stand out because, unlike other hospital quality reports, they are based solely on clinical outcomes data – not on reputation or opinion surveys – which can lack objectivity," said Evan Marks, EVP Informatics and Strategy, Healthgrades. "By choosing among the Distinguished Hospitals, patients can take comfort knowing that they have access to among the highest quality medical care in the nation."

For more information about Healthgrades or to download a full copy of the full Hospital Quality Clinical Excellence Report 2013 report as well as the American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2013: Healthgrades Report to the Nation, visit: www.healthgrades.com today.

About Healthgrades Hospital Quality Distinctions
Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance for over 4,500 hospitals across the nation in 28 procedures and conditions annually. Healthgrades.com provides information on objective measures of hospital performance, which allows consumers to compare their local hospitals online at www.healthgrades.com/find-a-hospital. Healthgrades evaluates hospital performance for nearly every hospital in the nation; no hospital can opt-in or opt-out of being evaluated, and no hospital pays to be evaluated. Mortality and complication rates are risk adjusted, which takes into account differing levels of severity of patient illness at different hospitals and allows for hospitals to be compared equally.

About Healthgrades
Healthgrades, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the leading online source of comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. More than 200 million consumers use the Healthgrades websites to search, evaluate, compare and connect with physicians and hospitals that best meet their treatment needs.  Consumers are empowered through use of the Healthgrades proprietary information about clinical outcomes, satisfaction, safety, and health conditions to make more informed healthcare decisions and take action.  For more information please visit www.healthgrades.com and www.bettermedicine.com.

SOURCE Healthgrades