UMC named one of 100 top hospitals in the nation

University Medical Center in Tucson has been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals, by Solucient, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care.

The award recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in clinical outcomes, patient safety, financial performance, efficiency, and growth in patient volume.

This is the second time University Medical Center has been recognized with this honor.

The 2006 Solucient “100 Top Hospitals National Benchmarks for Success” study appears in the March 12 edition of “Modern Healthcare” magazine.

University Medical Center is the primary teaching hospital of The University of Arizona Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Pharmacy.

It provides comprehensive acute-care services with special emphasis on cancer care, heart care, pediatrics, organ transplants and trauma.

According to Solucient, which is part of Thomson Healthcare, if all hospitals performed like the benchmark hospitals, more than 100,000 additional patients could survive each year, and an additional 114, patients could avoid complications.

Research findings

The study noted that:

With 25 percent higher admissions per bed, benchmark hospitals treated more patients than non-winning hospitals and also treated patients who were sicker and required more complex treatment.

The 100 Top Hospitals’ facilities spent an average of 12 percent less, per discharge than peer hospitals.

Median total profit margin for the 100 Top Hospitals winners was nearly three times the median of peer hospitals.

Salaries and benefits were $3,200 more a year per full-time staff members at benchmark hospitals.

The 14th edition of the Solucient “100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success” study scores hospitals according to nine key organization-wide measures: Risk- adjusted mortality, risk-adjustment complications, patient safety, growth in patient volume, core measures average, severity-adjusted average length of stay, expense per adjusted discharge, profit from operations, and cash to debt ratio.

More information on the study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com.

kengle@gvnews.com|547-9732