There's a common theme among the health systems named in Truven Health Analytics' 15 Top Health Systems list: they cultivate a culture of transparency on performance measures, according to Crain's Detroit Business.
Here are six takeaways:
1. Truven's best performing systems include the top five from three categories based on operating expenses:
- Large systems generating expenses of more than $1.75 billion
- Medium-size systems generating between $750 million and $1.75 billion
- Small systems with less than $750 million in operating expenses
2. The 15 selected were from 338 health systems across the United States. Each was evaluated based on publicly available government data looking at nine performance measures, including death rates, complications, 30-day readmissions and lengths of stay.
3. Complication rates at the top-performing systems were 15.1 percent lower than their peers. Mortality rates were 14.7 percent lower among the top-ranked hospitals.
4. Emergency department wait times were 12.3 percent shorter at the hospitals that were among the top-performing systems.
5. Top-performing systems reported 2.7 percent better patient-experience scores than their peers.
6. The percentage difference between the top health systems and their peers on Medicare spending decreased from 5.2 percent in last year's analysis to 4.9 percent this year.