How sick do you have to be to be admitted to the hospital? If you believe the hospital lobby in Washington, the answer is pretty darn sick. So sick, in fact, you'll cost the hospital more money than ever before to make you better. But if you believe payers, you're no sicker than anyone before you who was admitted to the hospital for the same condition.
The difference in those two opinions—each claiming to be supported by medical evidence—is worth billions of dollars in Medicare payments alone to the nation's hospitals. That conflict is the lead story of this special edition of Modern Healthcare.
Welcome to our
10th Annual 100 Top Hospitals supplement. In addition to our lead piece, this special edition like the nine before it attempts to answer the question: What do high-performing hospitals do differently than lesser-performing hospitals? In previous supplements, we've looked at such variables as: patient-safety strategies; new medical technologies; specific clinical practices; nurse-staffing ratios; executive-suite characteristics; the use of hospitalists; labor costs; avoidable medical errors; and patient-satisfaction scores.
For this issue, Thomson Reuters conducted an exclusive study at Modern Healthcare's request on the connection between clinical performance and hospital ownership status. In a separate study, the firm looked at the connection between readmission and mortality rates for heart attack patients. As you know, readmission rates are a hot topic because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Provisions of the new federal healthcare reform law, when implemented, will financially penalize hospitals with high readmission rates.
Modern Healthcare Washington reporter Jennifer Lubell wrote this edition's lead story. You can reach her at jlubell@modernhealthcare.com. Frequent contributor and former Modern Healthcare reporter John Morrissey wrote the ownership and readmission stories for this year's supplement. You can reach him at jcmwrite@gmail.com. We thank both for their fine work.
But that's not all. On Aug. 11 at 11 a.m. ET, Modern Healthcare will be hosting an exclusive webcast with executives from three of the hospitals that made this year's Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks study for 2009.
During the webcast, Modern Healthcare reporter Joe Carlson will ask the panelists how they keep their hospitals on top and field questions for the panelists submitted by participants. To register for the complimentary webcast, please visit modern healthcare.com/webinars. Registration is limited. If you have any questions or comments on the supplement or would like to suggest topics for future analysis, please contact me at 312-649-5439, or at dburda@modernhealthcare.com.
