St. John's named one of nation's top cardiovascular hospitals by Solucient

Contact: Brian Reardon (217) 544-6464, ext. 44306

SPRINGFIELD - Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital was named one of the nation's 100 Top cardiovascular hospitals today by Evanston, Ill.-based Solucient. It is the only hospital in Illinois outside of the Chicago/metro area to receive this rating. According to the company the winning hospitals have a higher than average surgery survival rate, less post-operative infections, more experience in procedures, and a quicker patient return to normal activity.

The annual national Solucient award for cardiovascular services objectively measures performance on key criteria at the nation's top performing acute-care hospitals. This is the second time Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital has been recognized with this honor.

"It's a pleasure to once again be recognized by a national, independent company that measures cardiovascular successes. Prairie prides itself on maintaining a value base of excellence which ensures our patients do well not only while in the hospital but as they return to an active lifestyle at home," said Jim Zito, executive director of Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital.

The 2004 Solucient 100 Top Hospitals Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study appears in the Oct. 25 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine. As one of the nation's leading source of information products for the healthcare industry, Solucient provides tools and vital insights that healthcare managers use to improve the performance of their organizations.

"This latest recognition underscores the fact that our patients have access to healthcare that is among the best in the nation. With cardiovascular disease as the nation's #1 killer, it's reassuring to know that the residents of downstate Illinois can turn to Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital for some of the best care in the country for treating heart disease," said Richard Carlson, executive vice president, St. John's Hospital.

Among the key findings:

• Although they are sicker than ever before, more coronary bypass patients across the nation are surviving surgery, and at higher than anticipated rates. The Solucient 100 Top Hospitals Cardiovascular award winners are leading the nation in this new trend.
  
• The results showed a significant increase in the severity of co-morbidities and complications, which translated into a higher "expected" death rate of five more patients per 1000 by 2003. However, contrary to this expected rise in CABG mortality, the study shows the reverse: a significant decrease in the actual death rate of five patients per 1000 by 2003.
  
• If cardiovascular services in all acute-care hospitals performed at the same level as the hospitals with the nation's top cardiovascular services, 4,200 additional cardiovascular patients could survive each year; and an additional 1,600 patients could be complication-free.
  
• Winning hospitals are 35 percent less likely than non-winners to have post-operative infections and 20 percent less likely than non-winners to have post-operative hemorrhage for patients undergoing CABG or percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).
  
• Winning hospitals annually perform twice as many bypass surgeries and PCIs, including angioplasties, as their peers.
  
• Cardiovascular patients at winning hospitals return to everyday life faster than those at non-winning hospitals. Patients at the winning hospitals were released more than a half-day earlier than patients at peer hospitals.
  
• Average cardiovascular-related costs for benchmark hospitals were nearly 13 percent lower than at peer hospitals.
  
• The sixth edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitalso?=: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study analyzed acute-care hospitals nationwide using detailed empirical performance data from publicly available Medicare MedPAR data and Medicare cost reports.
  

Solucient scored facilities in seven key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, complications, percentage of CABG patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage and severity-adjusted average cost.

More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at 100 Top Hospitals