Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital were again named among the nation's 100 top hospitals for cardiovascular care by Thomson Healthcare, formerly known as Solucient. Thomson’s annual study identifies hospitals that are setting benchmark levels of performance for cardiovascular services throughout the nation. It recognizes the hospitals and their management teams for superior clinical, operational and financial performance in the area of cardiovascular service. This is the second consecutive year that Rhode Island and The Miriam were both named to the list, and they remain the only hospitals in the state to be honored with this recognition.

Thomson’s study focused on hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients, including those undergoing acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG).

George Vecchione, president and CEO of Lifespan, says, “This ranking recognizes Rhode Island and The Miriam hospitals’ continuing leadership in the area of cardiac care. Our cardiac physicians and surgeons, along with the technical and nursing staff at both hospitals, are committed to providing outstanding care to our patients. This recognition is confirmation of that commitment.”

Using Medicare cost reports and Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) data, each hospital was ranked on the basis of its performance on each of eight key performance measures: 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 hospitals were then assigned to one of three comparison groups: teaching hospitals with cardiovascular residency programs, teaching hospitals without cardiovascular residency programs and community hospitals. Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital are included in the first group and are among only 30 hospitals across the country in this category.

Key findings from the Thomson study indicate:

• If peer hospitals (non-winners) achieved the same results as the 100 Top Hospitals award winners, more than 7,000 lives would be saved and nearly 750 medical complications would be avoided annually.

• Winning hospitals performed nearly two-thirds more percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) and CABGs than their peers. A variety of previously published findings show that volume is an important correlate with outcomes for cardiovascular patients.

• Benchmark hospitals are proving more efficient in treating cardiovascular patients. The award winners reported hospital stays that were 12 percent shorter, on average, than peer hospitals (5.14 days compared with 5.85 days).

• The 100 Top Hospitals reported costs that averaged 13 percent — or about $2,000 — less per case than peer hospitals.

A complete list of the 100 top cardiovascular hospitals is published in the November 19 issue of Modern Healthcare or can be found at: http://www.100tophospitals.com/winners/Cardiowinners.aspx.