Sutter Medical Center, Sutter Davis Lauded as Top Hospitals in Nation

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento and Sutter Davis Hospital today were named two of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals^® by Truven Health Analytics, formerly the health-care business of Thomson Reuters. The two Sutter hospitals were the only winners of the 100 Top Hospitals^® award in the Sacramento region.

Truven Health Analytics is a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care. The 100 Top Hospitals^® study uses objective research and independent public data to recognize the best U.S. hospitals. The 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.

The study has been conducted annually since 1993. This is the third time Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento has been recognized with this honor, and the fourth time and third year in a row that Sutter Davis Hospital received the award. Last year, Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento was also named one of the nation's 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals by Truven.

"We are honored that Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento was chosen as one of the nation's top hospitals," said Carrie Owen Plietz, CEO of Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento. "We continually strive for excellence in quality care for all of our patients and the entire Sacramento region, and this award recognizes the exceptional, compassionate health care that our staff and physicians deliver."

"This renowned recognition is another acknowledgement of our commitment to safer patient care and excellent patient satisfaction," said Sutter Davis Hospital Chief Executive Officer Janet Wagner. "We're proud to receive this recognition for three consecutive years, because this shows that we are continually striving to improve our services for our patients and the community as a whole."

To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Truven Health researchers evaluated 2,922 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals. They used public information — Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website. Hospitals do not apply, and winners do not pay to market this honor.

The winning hospitals were announced in this week's edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

"The winners of the 100 Top Hospitals award have driven the national benchmarks higher every year for 20 years," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president at Truven Health Analytics. "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 health-care reform."

If all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities:

• More than 164,000 additional lives could be saved.
• Approximately 82,000 additional patients could be complication free.
• More than $6 billion could be saved.
• The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.

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

More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com.

Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento and Sutter Davis Hospital are part of Sutter Health, a not-for-profit, community-based health network located throughout Northern California.

Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento is a regional center for high-level medical care and includes two acute-care hospitals – Sutter General and Sutter Memorial – and a psychiatric hospital, Sutter Center for Psychiatry. It is currently constructing a new Women's and Children's Center at its midtown Sacramento campus that will open in 2014. For more information on Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento, its services and expansion project, visit www.suttermedicalcenter.org.

Sutter Davis Hospital offers the best of all worlds – a technologically advanced acute-care hospital, a strong offering of outpatient services and community outreach programs. The 48-bed hospital and its programs provide care and support to the residents of Davis, Dixon, Winters, Woodland, West Sacramento, Vacaville and rural communities throughout Yolo and Eastern Solano counties. For more on the hospital, visit the website www.sutterdavis.org.

SOURCE Sutter Health