St. Luke’s recognized as a Top 100 Hospital for the fourth time

St. Luke's Hospital is one of only two hospitals in the state named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals by Thomson Reuters, the nation's leading source of healthcare information. The award recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in quality of care, operational efficiency, financial performance and growth. This is the fourth time St. Luke's has received this distinction. According to Thomson Reuters, it is difficult to be selected as a national benchmark hospital every year. Research has shown hospitals that win this award three or more times have particularly high levels of performance over many years.

The 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks study evaluated nearly 3,000 acute care, non-federal hospitals, including St. Luke's, in 10 areas: mortality, medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, patient satisfaction, adherence to clinical standards of care, and post-discharge mortality and readmission rates for acute heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia. The study has been conducted annually since 1993. The study then compared St. Luke's performance against similarly-sized hospitals across the country. Hospitals do not apply, pay for, or complete a survey to receive this award.

“We are fortunate to have such exceptional medical staff, nurses and support staff who collaborate to continuously improve patient care,” said Ted Townsend, St. Luke's president and CEO. “Being a four-time winner of this prestigious award is a reflection of the commitment, skill and experience of the healthcare providers, nurses and staff working at St. Luke's.”

The study also found that if all Medicare inpatients throughout the country received the same level of care as those treated in these 100 Top Hospitals award winners, including St. Luke's, then:

• More than 186,000 additional lives could be saved.
• Approximately 56,000 additional patients could be complication-free.
• More than $4.3 billion could be saved.
• The average patient stay would decrease by nearly half a day.

If the same standards were applied to all inpatients, the impact would be even greater. Visit http://www.100tophospitals.com/top-national-hospitals/ to read the entire 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks study.

In addition to St. Luke's, Mercy Medical Center North Iowa in Mason City was also named a Top 100 Hospital.