Leapfrog Group names "Highest Value" U.S. hospitals

The Leapfrog Group has identified the "Highest Value" hospitals in the United States based on a review of over 1,220 hospitals participating in the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey.

The Leapfrog Group claims to be the first national quality organization to evaluate and identify hospitals providing excellent quality and at the same time demonstrating an appropriate use of resources for specific procedures.

"Consumers and purchasers are demanding both quality and cost effectiveness," said Leah Binder, CEO of The Leapfrog Group. "These hospitals demonstrate that it is possible to deliver quality healthcare and to keep costs lower by using expensive healthcare resources efficiently."

Binder said Leapfrog is currently the only national organization asking hospitals for efficiency information.

"We believe it's important to recognize not only good outcomes, but prudent use of resources as well," she said. "Quality and efficiency must go hand-in-hand if this nation is ever going to fix its broken healthcare system."

The 13 "Highest Value" hospitals in the Leapfrog survey are:

• Desert Regional Medical Center, Palm Springs, Calif.

• Mercy Medical Center Redding, Redding, Calif.

• St. Mary's Hospital And Medical Center, Grand Junction, Colo.

• St. John's Hospital, Springfield, Ill.

• St. Luke's Hospital, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

• Fairview Southdale Hospital, Edina, Minn.

• Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital, Saint Louis Park, Minn.

• Regions Hospital, Saint Paul, Minn.

• North Mississippi Medical Center, Tupelo, Miss.

• St. Luke's Hospital, Maumee, Ohio

• Providence St Vincent Medical Center, Portland, Ore.

• Mercy General Health Partners (Sherman Campus), Muskegon, Mich.

• St. Clare's Hospital Of Weston Inc, Weston, Wis.

The hospitals were deemed "Highest Value" based on their efficiency scores - a combination of their quality and resource utilization scores - for coronary artery bypass graft, percutaneous coronary interventions, treatment of acute myocardial infarction, and pneumonia care.

To make Leapfrog's Highest Value list, a hospital had to have a top efficiency of care score for at least three of these four procedures and conditions. Resource use was measured by the hospital's severity-adjusted average length of stay for that procedure, inflated by the readmission rate. Quality scores are based on meeting appropriate processes of care measures, and (for CABG and PCI) hospital volume and risk-adjusted mortality.