St. David's Medical Center and St. David's North Austin Medical Center Named Among Nation's 100 Top Hospitals® by Truven Health Analytics

AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- On Feb. 25, 2013, St. David's Medical Center and St. David's North Austin Medical Center were named among the nation's 100 Top Hospitals^® by Truven Health Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters). Truven Health Analytics is a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare. This is the fourth consecutive year that St. David's Medical Center has received this prestigious ranking and the second consecutive year for St. David's North Austin Medical Center.

"We are pleased that two of our facilities—St. David's Medical Center, which includes our St. David's Georgetown Hospital campus, and St. David's North Austin Medical Center—have been listed among the top hospitals in the nation," David Huffstutler, president and chief executive officer of St. David's HealthCare, said. "This honor is a direct reflection of our commitment to providing patients with the highest quality of care."

The Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals study evaluates performance in 10 areas—mortality; medical complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; post-discharge mortality; and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure and pneumonia.

St. David's Medical Center and St. David's North Austin Medical Center were among only nine Texas hospitals to be recognized with this designation.

St. David's Medical Center and St. David's North Austin Medical Center were selected from among nearly 3,000 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals in the United States for demonstrating that high-quality patient outcomes can be achieved while improving efficiency. According to the organization, if all hospitals performed at the same level as the 100 Top Hospitals award winners (based on analysis of Medicare inpatients over one year): 

• More than 164,000 additional patients would survive each year.
• Approximately 82,000 patient complications would be avoided annually.
• The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.
• More than $6 billion could be saved.

If the same standards were applied to all inpatients, the impact would be even greater.

"The winners of the 100 Top Hospitals award have driven the national benchmarks higher every year for 20 years," Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president at Truven Health Analytics, said. "This year's winners have brought even higher value to their local communities—better quality, higher efficiency and high patient perceptions of care—while confronting the challenges of massive industry-wide transformation to implement healthcare reform. The key to success in a tumultuous environment is visionary leadership that develops and maintains a hospital-wide culture of excellence that cuts across everything, from patient care to housekeeping to administration, and the refusal to rest on laurels when it comes to adopting new technologies and techniques. I congratulate this year's winners for their persistent drive for excellence."

In recent years, many organizations have begun ranking hospitals, and it is often difficult for the average consumer to determine which rankings carry the most weight. Unlike many of these that are more subjective in nature, the Truven Health 100 Top Hospitals rankings are purely objective, with no reputational component, and winners neither apply for the award nor pay to market the recognition. The 100 Top Hospitals study is annual, quantitative research that uses objective methodology and independent public data to recognize the best U.S. hospitals. The public data come primarily from the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) dataset, the Medicare Cost Report and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare dataset. It also considers comparisons with other facilities similar in size and teaching status.

The winning hospitals were announced in the February 25 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine. Please visit www.100TopHospitals.com to view the complete list of 2013 winners or for more information on the award and 100 Top Hospitals research.

St. David's HealthCare

With more than 60 sites across Central Texas, St. David's HealthCare includes seven of the area's leading hospitals and is one of the largest health systems in Texas. Known for compassionate, high-quality care, the organization has been recognized with the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the State of Texas based upon world-class quality measures. In January 2012, St. David's HealthCare was recognized as one of the top 15 health systems in the U.S. by Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare. In April 2012, four of the system's facilities—St. David's Medical Center, St. David's North Austin Medical Center, St. David's Round Rock Medical Center and St. David's Georgetown Hospital—were named to the list of 100 top hospitals in the U.S. by Thomson Reuters. Additionally, Heart Hospital of Austin, a campus of St. David's Medical Center, was named a Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospital for 2012. Perennially ranked as the top Austin-area employer among large companies by the Austin Business Journal's annual "Best Places to Work" survey, St. David's HealthCare is the third-largest private employer in the Austin area, with more than 7,900 employees. For more information, please visit StDavids.com.

Media Contacts:
Erin Ochoa or Kristin Marcum
Elizabeth Christian & Associates Public Relations
512.472.9599

SOURCE St. David's HealthCare