ST. LOUIS - For the fourth consecutive year and seventh time, Mercy Hospital St. Louis was named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by IBM Watson HealthTM. The quality care at Mercy Hospital St. Louis has been repeatedly recognized in recent years including being named a CMS Five-Star Hospital, a Leapfrog Straight A Hospital and a Leapfrog Top Hospital.
“The extraordinary work our team does continues to be recognized on a national level for the quality care we provide patients,” said Stephen Mackin, president of Mercy Hospital St. Louis. “While it’s humbling to be listed among the best hospitals in the country, we’ll keep pushing to be even better.”
The study spotlights the best-performing hospitals in the U.S. based on a balanced scorecard using publicly available data for clinical, operational, and patient satisfaction metrics. The study is part of IBM Watson Health's commitment to leveraging science and data to advance health and it has been conducted annually since 1993.
Mercy St. Louis, and the other Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals® winners, outperformed peer group hospitals within all 10 clinical and operational performance benchmarks evaluated in the study. Digging deeper, if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities:
- More than 103,000 additional lives could be saved;
- More than 38,000 additional patients could be complication-free;
- More than $8.2 billion in inpatient costs could be saved; and
- Approximately 155,000 fewer discharged patients would be readmitted within 30 days.
Following were the key performance measurements on which 100 Top Hospitals showed the most significant average outperformance versus non-winning peer group hospitals (full study results available here):
- Higher Survival Rates: The 100 Top Hospitals winners achieved survival rates that were 24.9 percent higher than those of peer hospitals.
- Fewer Complications and Infections: Patients at winning hospitals experienced 18.7 percent fewer complications and 19.3 percent fewer healthcare-associated infections than peer group hospitals.
- Shorter Length of Stay: Winning hospitals had a median severity-adjusted length of stay that was one half-day shorter (0.5) than peers.
- Shorter Emergency Department Wait Times: Overall, winning hospitals delivered median emergency department wait times that were 17.3 minutes shorter than those of peer group hospitals.
- Lower Inpatient Expenses: Average inpatient costs per discharge were 11.9 percent lower (a difference of $830 per discharge) at 100 Top Hospitals versus peer group hospitals.
- Higher Profit Overall Margins: Winning hospitals maintained a median operating profit margin that was 11.9 percentage points higher than peer group hospitals.
- Higher Patient Satisfaction: Overall hospital experience, as measured by the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS), was rated 3 percent higher for winning hospitals than peer group hospitals.
"At a time when research shows that the U.S. spends nearly twice as much on healthcare as other high-income countries, yet has less effective population health outcomes, the 100 Top Hospitals are setting a different example by delivering consistently better care at a lower cost," said Ekta Punwani, 100 Top Hospitals® program leader at IBM Watson Health.
Kyu Rhee, M.D., M.P.P., vice president and chief health officer at IBM Watson Health, added: "From small community hospitals to major teaching hospitals, these diverse hospitals have demonstrated that quality care, higher patient satisfaction, and operational efficiency can be achieved together. In this era of big data, analytics, transparency, and patient empowerment, it is essential that we learn from these leading hospitals and work to spread their best practices to our entire health system which could translate into over 100K more lives saved, nearly 40K less complications, over 150K fewer readmissions, and over $8 billion in savings."
Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City and Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas were also named to the 100 Top Hospitals list. In addition, Mercy, as a system of hospitals across four states, has been named a 15 Top Health System for three years from 2016-2018.
About the IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals® Program
The IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals, formerly the Truven Health Analytics 100 Top Hospitals, the program uses independent and objective research to analyze hospital and health system performance. Organizations do not apply or pay for this honor or pay to promote their award. Award-winning hospitals and health systems prove that better care is possible and provide an example for other organizations to follow across the industry. The 100 Top Hospitals award winners demonstrate top performance on both how patients are cared for under clinical measures and how the hospital performs as an efficient business. 100 Top Hospitals is a registered trademark of Truven Health Analytics, part of the IBM Watson Health business. Click here for more information.
About IBM Watson Health
Watson Health is a business unit of IBM that is dedicated to the development and implementation of cognitive and data-driven technologies to advance health. Watson Health technologies are tackling a wide range of the world's biggest health care challenges, including cancer, diabetes, drug discovery and more.
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