Penn Presbyterian Medical Center Named a Solucient Top 100 Cardiovascular Hospital For Fifth Year in a Row
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center,
part of the University of Pennsylvania
Health System, is the only hospital
in Philadelphia to be selected as one of the
nation's “100 Top Hospitals” for
cardiovascular care by Solucient, a Thomson healthcare
business. Every year, the Solucient award for
cardiovascular services objectively measures
performance on key criteria at the nation's
top-performing acute-care hospitals. This is
the fifth year in a row that Penn Presbyterian
has been recognized with this honor.
“We were selected in the category of ‘teaching
hospital with a cardiovascular residency program.'
This distinction recognizes excellence in the
delivery of cardiovascular services,” comments
Michele Volpe, Penn Presbyterian Executive
Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Its
importance is what it symbolizes – the
care we're providing to our cardiac patients
is one that when compared against other similar
programs in the country, rates at the top in
terms of its outcomes.”
Volpe goes on to say, “The fact that we've
now earned this honor for five consecutive years
speaks to the consistency of the performance
of our cardiovascular program, which values every
member of the team working collaboratively in
the best interest of the patient.”
Penn Presbyterian physicians and staff have
expertise in complex arrhythmia management, interventional
cardiology, noninvasive cardiology and cardiac
imaging, preventive cardiology, vascular medicine
and endovascular therapy, and women's heart
health. In addition to routine heart operations,
surgeons also perform coronary artery bypass
in high-risk patients, complex aortic surgery,
heart valve repair and minimally invasive robotic-assisted
cardiac surgery.
Harvey
Waxman, MD, chief of
Cardiology at Penn Presbyterian, states, “It's
important to note that we are a regional program
treating many acutely-ill patients, many who
have come to our hospital after being referred
by physicians in Southern and Central New Jersey
and suburban Philadelphia. Our program is so
highly recognized that these patients are ‘stepping
over' many other reputable programs in
the area to come to ours for significant cardiac
care.”
The "Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular
Benchmarks for Success" annual study identifies
the nation's top providers of cardiovascular
service, using the two most recent years of data.
The study uses a balance scorecard approach for
facilities. Solucient scored facilities in eight
key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical
mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality,
risk-adjusted complications, core measures score,
percentage of CABG patients with internal mammary
artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted
average length of stay, and wage- and severity-adjusted
average cost. The measures were calculated for
three classes of hospitals: teaching with cardiovascular
residency programs, teaching without cardiovascular
residency programs, and community.
These measures help to produce benchmarks to
improve cardiology standards of care for hospitals
across the country. The study found that top-performing
facilities consistently outperform their peers,
have higher survival rates, lower complications
indices and shorter lengths of stay compared
with the peer group hospitals.
Among the key findings:
- If peer hospitals (non-winners) provided
the same quality of cardiovascular care as
the 100 Top Hospitals facilities, survival
rates could increase by more than 8,000 patients
each year.
- Complications of care could also decrease
in peer hospitals. Approximately 575 additional
patients could be complication-free.
- Both medical and surgical cardiovascular
patients experience markedly higher survival
rates at winning hospitals.
- Winning hospitals performed up to 80 percent
more percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs)
than their peers, and about 50 percent more
CABGs.
- Benchmark hospitals are proving more efficient
in treating cardiovascular patients. The average
100 Top Hospitals Cardiovascular winner discharges
patients half a day earlier and at an average
cost that is about 13 percent less than its
peers.
The 2006 "Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular
Benchmarks for Success" study appeared in the
Nov. 6 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.
In the Solucient study – which objectively
identifies hospitals that are the highest performers
in the nation in cardiovascular service – only
seven hospitals in Pennsylvania received this
honor. You can access a complete listing of winners
and a report summary at: www.100tophospitals.com.
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