UW Hospital and Clinics Among Top 100 for Cardiovascular Care

Madison, Wisconsin - According to the experts at Thomson Reuters Healthcare, the top 100 cardiovascular hospitals in the country manage to be cost-conscious while achieving the highest quality of patient care.

And for the sixth time, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is one of them. In fact, UW Hospital is one of only six Wisconsin hospitals to make the eleventh annual benchmarking list compiled by Stamford, Connecticut-based Thomson Reuters Healthcare, and the only one in the Madison area.

The annual Thomson Reuters award for cardiovascular services objectively measures performance on key criteria at nearly 1,000 of the nation's top performing acute-care hospitals. The benchmarks are based on 2007 and 2008 Medicare MedPAR data and 2008 Medicare cost reports.

"I think this is really a case of the best getting better, setting the standards for the rest of the nation's hospitals," says Donna Katen-Bahensky, CEO of UW Hospital and Clinics. "We've continued to maintain our focus on quality, attracting the best medical talent and expanding our programs for care. When Thomson continues to recognize those efforts, it's an indication we're doing the right things for our patients."

UW Hospital and Clinics had lower mortality than the average top 100 hospitals for angioplasty and heart attack, and among the lowest mortality for bypass surgery and heart failure patients.

The key findings in this year's benchmarks focused both on quality patient care and efficiency of care. Among other things, the benchmarks showed that the top 100 hospitals:

• Accrued a full 12 percent lower cost in treating cardiovascular patients while providing higher quality care
• Achieved significantly lower 30-day mortality rates than peer hospitals
• Achieved significantly lower readmission rates within 30 days for patients with heart failure and heart attacks, and the same rate of readmissions for open heart surgery
• Better clinical efficiency, with patients returning to daily life an average two-thirds of a day earlier than in peer hospitals

The benchmark study also noted that mortality rates for cardiovascular care across all hospitals on the list are declining so much that 97 percent of cardiovascular patients who receive inpatient care are surviving, and more than 99 percent are complication-free.

Thomson scored facilities in eight key performance areas:

• Risk-adjusted medical mortality
• Risk-adjusted surgical mortality
• risk-adjusted complications
• Core measures score
• Percentage of bypass patients with internal mammary artery use
• Procedure volume
• Severity-adjusted average length of stay
• Wage- and severity-adjusted average cost

The measures were calculated for three classes of hospitals with the following number of winners in each:

• Teaching with cardiovascular residency programs, 30 winners
• Teaching without cardiovascular residency programs, 40 winners
• Community, 30 winners

The 2009 Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study appears in the November 19 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.