Healthgrades names 100 top hospitals for 2017; See the list

Healthgrades has released its list of America's 50 and 100 Best Hospitals for 2017 for demonstrating what the organization calls "superior clinical outcomes" across the majority of common inpatient conditions and procedures for at least three consecutive years.

Healthgrades research revealed that America's Best Hospitals also outperform their peers in treating a core group of conditions that account for more than 80 percent of mortalities in areas evaluated by the group, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, respiratory failure, sepsis and stroke.

Patients treated in hospitals achieving the America's 100 Best Hospitals Award have, on average, a 27.1 percent lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award. If all hospitals, as a group, performed similarly to hospitals achieving that status, on average, 179,438 lives could potentially have been saved, the group said.

[Also: Healthgrades names top hospitals for clinical excellence; See who made the list]

According to a related whitepaper released by Healthgrades, not only do the winning hospitals demonstrate superior clinical outcomes, they also engage consumers as active participants in their care. Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, for example, implemented the Orthopedic Patient-Peer Partner program, an idea put forth by the medical center's orthopedic patients themselves. Through this program, patients who have undergone joint replacement surgery at Virginia Mason can return as volunteers to support and encourage others who are preparing to undergo hip, knee or shoulder replacement.

The hospitals that are among America's 100 Best Hospitals are the top 2 percent in the nation for consistent clinical excellence and have consecutively received a Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence for at least the last three years. The recipients of America's 50 Best Hospitals Award have achieved the Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence for at least six consecutive years, placing them in the top 1 percent in the country.

Here is the list:

Twitter: @JELagasse