CHRISTUS St. Michael Health named among top 100 hospitals | Business

For the second year in a row, CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System was named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare.

Identified from nearly 3,000 U.S. hospitals, CHRISTUS St. Michael is one of 20 hospitals in the large community hospital category, as well as the only hospital in the four-states region and one of only 14 Texas hospitals to receive the 100 Top Hospitals® award.

The award was presented on Monday.

“The 100 Top award is a testament to the nationally recognized quality of care we provide as well as a tribute to our physicians and associates,” said Chris Karam, CHRISTUS St. Michael President/CEO. “Receiving this award for two years running demonstrates that our continuous focus on quality helps ensure that area residents can receive the care they deserve."

Hospitals do not apply for the 100 Top recognition, and winners do not pay to market the honor, according to Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president at Thomason Reuters.

The Thomson Reuters 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.

To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Thomson Reuters researchers evaluated 2,866 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.
According to Thomas Reuters, if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities:    
• Nearly 186,000 additional lives could be saved each year.
• More than 56,000 patients could be complication-free.
• More than $4.3 million could be saved.
• The average patient stay would decrease by half a day.

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