Top 50 cities named for hospital care
HealthGrades has identified the top 50 cities in the nation for hospital care.
Officials of the online healthcare quality rating and services company said the analysis was made of cities with the highest concentration of hospitals ranking in the top 5 percent for care – something that patients are willing to pay more for.
The top cities for hospital care and top performing hospital ranking are based on the ninth annual HealthGrades Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study. The study looks at patient death and complication rates at the nation's nearly 5,000 hospitals. It also ranks hospitals across 26 different medical procedures and diagnoses. Hospitals are evaluated solely on patients' clinical outcomes – risk-adjusted mortality and inhospital.
The analysis is based on approximately 40 million Medicare patient discharge records for the years 2007-2009.
[Learn more about top performing hospitals here: HealthGrades study: 'Unacceptably wide gap' between top peforming hospitals, others.]
According to the HealthGrades rankings, West Palm Beach, Fla., is the top city in the nation, with nine out of 12 hospitals designated as top performers.
According to this year's study, many families are aware of differences in hospital quality in their communities. They expect continued transparency from hospitals when it comes to quality, the study found, and rely on clinical quality ratings when choosing a provider.
"Our research indicates that the recent healthcare reform debate and highly-publicized reports about the persistence of a wide variation in the quality of patient care at U.S. hospitals have resonated with the American public," said Rick May, HealthGrades' vice president of clinical quality services and the study's co-author. "No longer is today's healthcare consumer simply looking for the least expensive option when it comes to medical care. They expect high quality and are willing to go out of their way to get it."
According to a survey of nearly 15,000 visitors to HealthGrades.com that was included in the study:
- More than 83 percent of consumers are very or somewhat concerned about hospital quality in their community.
- Almost 94 percent of patients surveyed reported being willing to go out of their way (drive farther, reschedule appointments) to seek care at a more highly rated hospital. Almost 70 percent said they'd be willing to pay more out-of-pocket to seek care at a top-rated hospital.
- 57 percent believe online hospital quality ratings are a trustworthy source of information.
- Nearly 67 percent want access to more quality information and almost 61 percent feel the federal government should pay high-performing hospitals more.
Other key findings from the study:
- Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence (those among the top 5 percent in the nation) outperform other hospitals across all 17 mortality cohorts and six of nine complication cohorts studied from 2007 through 2009.
- Those hospitals had a 29.82 percent lower risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality rate and a 1.91 percent lower risk-adjusted in-hospital complication rate among Medicare beneficiaries compared to all other hospitals.
- If all hospitals performed at this level, 158,684 Medicare lives could potentially have been saved and 3,511 Medicare in-hospital complications could potentially have been avoided.
Click here to see the list of hospitals that rank top 5 percent in the nation for each city.
[More about HealthGrades ratings for best hospitals: HealthGrades names America's 50 best hospitals for 2010.]
HealthGrades Top 50 Cities for Hospital Care is on the next page.
HealthGrades Top 50 Cities for Hospital Care
- West Palm Beach, Fla.
- Brownsville, Texas
- Dayton, Ohio
- Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.
- Tucson, Ariz.
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Phoenix , Ariz
- Greenville, S.C.
- Chattanooga, Tenn.
- Richmond, Va.
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Hartford/New Haven, Conn.
- Cleveland
- Grand Rapids, Mich.
- Baltimore
- Chicago
- Diego
- Detroit
- Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
- St. Louis
- Orlando, Fla.
- Houston
- Wilkes Barre, Pa.
- La Crosse-Eau Claire, Wis.
- Milwaukee, Wis.
- Evansville, Ind.
- Atlanta
- Colorado Springs, Colo.
- Jacksonville, Fla.
- Columbia, Mo.
- Tri-Cities, Tenn.
- Johnstown/Altoona, Pa.
- Savannah, Ga.
- Lincoln, Neb.
- Denver
- Los Angeles
- Eugene, Ore.
- Des Moines/Ames, Iowa
- Youngstown, Oho
- Wichita, Kan.
- Davenport, Iowa
- Champaign, Ill.
- Columbus, Ohio
- Springfield, Mo.
- Memphis, Tenn.
- Syracuse, N.Y.
- Pittsburgh
- San Francisco
- Louisville, Ky.
- New York City
