Leaders and best: U-M Health System ranked among 100 Top Hospitals in the U.S.

U-M's safe, high-quality care and satisfied patients also earn Everest Award

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new independent analysis of the quality, safety and efficiency of care provided by more than 3,000 hospitals across the country rates the University of Michigan Health System in the top 100.

In the 100 Top Hospitals list released today by Truven Health Analytics, UMHS is one of only 15 major teaching hospitals to earn a place.

U-M's ever-improving performance on measures of patient safety, health care quality and financial stability also earned Truven's Everest Award -- given to only 17 hospitals of any kind across the country.

"We are very proud of this honor because it recognizes our extensive efforts to continually improve the quality and safety of care we provide to patients," says UMHS CEO Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D. "The faculty and staff who provide and support patient care within our Health System are the people who earned this honor."

"It's gratifying to see how the hard work of our physicians and staff has brought us to the very peak of performance in American health care, as measured by objective data," says Doug Strong, MBA , the chief executive officer of the U-M Hospitals and Health Centers. "The recognition for our sustained high quality and rapid improvement, even as we provide highly complex care, is fantastic."

Darrell Campbell, Jr., M.D., the chief medical officer for UMHS, notes that while all these rankings and ratings are based on different combinations of factors, they all showcase the broad-based excellence of UMHS care. 

"As patients, and those who pay for their care, demand accountability and better performance from health care providers and institutions, we're proud to reach the top tier," he says. "But we also know that we must constantly look for ways to improve our performance as we seek be the safest hospital in the country."

The 100 Top Hospitals ranking is based on a broad range of data, including information about how often patients suffered complications and preventable patient safety incidents, how often patients were re-admitted to the hospital soon after a hospital stay, how long patients stayed in the hospital, the cost of hospital care adjusted for the severity of illness, and mortality rates. Patients' ratings of care, and other factors, are also included.

UMHS has now been on the Truven (formerly Thomson Reuters) Top Hospitals list eight times. The methodology used to compile the ranking has evolved to include ever-more-precise measurement that takes into account each patient's characteristics.

This is the latest in a series of recognitions for the high level of care that UMHS provides to patients of all ages at its three hospitals and 40 outpatient health centers. Each ranking or honor is based on different factors, but taken together they show the broad-based strength of U-M care.

Earlier this month, Parents magazine ranked the U-M C.S. Mott Children's Hospital among the Top 10 Children's Hospitals in the country, and more than 500 U-M Medical School faculty physicians were named among America's Top Doctors by their peers. Just two months ago, the Leapfrog Group ranked U-M among only 67 Top Hospitals for patient safety.

In 2012, U.S. News & World Report placed U-M on its Best Hospitals national Honor Roll for the 18th year in a row and ranked Mott high in all 10 children's health specialties, and UMHS won the National Research Corporation's 2012 Consumer Choice Award for being patients' top choice for both the Ann Arbor and Detroit areas.

Truven estimates that if all hospitals performed at the same level as the 100 Top Hospitals award winners, more than 164,000 additional lives could be saved, nearly 82,000 additional patients could be complication-free, $6 billion could be saved and the average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.

For more information on the 100 Top Hospitals ranking, see 100TopHospitals.com.

To see for yourself how UMHS performs on key measures of quality, safety and patient satisfaction, see www.uofmhealth.org/quality.

SOURCE University of Michigan Health System