St. John’s recognized as ‘Top 100’ hospital

August 15, 2007 08:33 pm

— By Melissa Dunson
mdunson@joplinglobe.com
Good things are coming in threes for St. John’s Regional Medical Center, which has received its third “Top 100” hospital award within the past year.
Debbie Linnes, president of St. John’s, on Wednesday said the medical center has again been named a Top 100 performance-improvement leader by Thomson Healthcare, formerly known as Solucient.
St. John’s was named a Top 100 cardiovascular hospital in November 2006, and a Top 100 performance-improvement leader in March 2007.
Thomson Healthcare is a health-care consulting and research firm. The award recognizes the hospital’s progress in improving performance in patient outcomes, patient safety, hospital efficiency, financial stability and patient growth numbers from 2001 to 2005.
“This is perhaps the highest honor of them all, because it represents continued and consistent improvement over a five-year period,” Linnes said. “This shows St. John’s as a leader locally, regionally and nationally.”
The latest Thomson study that named the Top 100 hospitals examined more than 2,800 hospitals. The study helps track the progress of the hospital industry since the Institute of Medicine published its landmark study, “Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century,” in 2001.
Jane Cage, president of St. John’s board of directors, said that to qualify for the honor, the hospital had to show improvement in a variety of areas, including financial stability. She said St. John’s increased its annual expenses by just 6 percent over the study period, while other “peer” hospitals increased expenses by 18 percent.
The Thomson study reports that the Top 100 hospitals went from having more patient deaths, complications and adverse safety events than expected to having less than expected; rose from unprofitability to an average profit margin of 5.9 percent; and decreased the average patient length of stay by nearly a day.
Walter Dandridge, M.D., the chief of staff at St. John’s, said the Top 100 award means St. John’s decreased unwanted events such as respiratory failure, infections and unexpected deaths. It also decreased the length of the hospital stay and the average expense. The hospital increased the profit and cash-to-debt ratio, and increased the number of patients treated each year in the past five years.
“This means that the 100 top hospitals, like St. John’s, have higher survival rates, keep more patients complication-free and attract more patients,” Dandridge said.
Melissa Dunson is the business writer for The Joplin Globe.


One of two in state

The only other Missouri hospital named in the latest Top 100 study is St. Anthony’s Medical Center in St. Louis.

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