For the fourth consecutive year, HealthGrades identified 50 hospitals that have provided outstanding clinical quality year after year and recognizes these hospitals as America’s 50 Best Hospitals (A50B). These hospitals have received the HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ (DHA-CE) for the most consecutive years of the eight years HealthGrades has designated this award (from 2003-2010). HealthGrades found that a subset of these hospitals were consistently Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence award recipients; these hospitals were recognized as America’s 50 Best Hospitals. All America’s 50 Best Hospitals were DHA-CE recipients for at least the last six years, and 34 were DHA-CE recipients in all eight years.
To be considered for HealthGrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals Award a hospital must be recognized for consistent excellence. To identify America's 50 Best Hopsitals, HealthGrades used a two-step process:
Hospitals that were Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence recipients for all of the last seven years, or the last eight years, were identified.
Hospitals that were Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence recipients for all of the last six years were identified.
The six-year recipients were sorted by z-score, using the average z-score from the most recent Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence analysis. The average z-score is a statistical measure of hospital quality outcomes.
The top hospitals from this list were then added to the DHA-CE list from step 1 to create a list of America’s 50 Best Hospitals.
Overall, HealthGrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals are those hospitals that are ranked year over year among the top 5% in the nation for clinical quality. These elite organizations represent the best of the top-performing hospitals and set the quality standard for American hospitals. During the period from 2006 through 2008, they:
- Had 27% lower risk-adjusted inhospital mortality.
- Performed 8% better in inhospital complications.
- Improved at a greater rate for risk-adjusted mortality.
HealthGrades rates hospitals based on quality outcomes (risk-adjusted inhospital mortality and complication rates). The goal is to provide consumers with objective, comparative information on hospitals so they can make more informed healthcare decisions. In fact, if all hospitals performed at the level of America’s 50 Best Hospitals across 17 procedures and condition, 164,964 Medicare lives could potentially have been saved and 18,900 Medicare inhospital complications could potentially have been avoided.