Lake Hospital System Named One of Nation's Top 100 Hospitals by Solucient

LHS Received This Recognition Two Out of The Past Three Years

On the heels of being named among the top five percent of all hospitals in the nation by HealthGrades, Lake Hospital System has been distinguished as one of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S. by Solucient. 

A national study recently released by Solucient, a leading source of health care business intelligence, named Lake Hospital System one of the nation’s top hospitals for achieving excellence in clinical outcomes, patient safety, operational efficiency, financial stability and growth. Lake Hospital System was one of only 20 hospitals in the nation recognized in the category of large community hospitals. This is the second time in the past three years that Lake Hospital System has received this distinction.

“We are thrilled to again be recognized as one of the nation’s premier health care institutions by Solucient,” said Cynthia Moore-Hardy, president and CEO of Lake Hospital System.  “This recognition validates that independent community-based hospitals like Lake Hospital System can offer exceptional medical treatment, while providing the personalized care that patients desire.”

Solucient, which annually conducts the 100 Top Hospitals®: National Benchmarks for Success study, looked at data from more than 5,600 acute care general hospitals to identify the 100 top performing hospitals and establish new national benchmarks in health care.  Hospitals ranked highest in the study were found to have higher survival rates, lower complications indices, shorter lengths of stay, and lower expenses compared with the peer group of U.S. hospitals.  They were also found to be best at being able to provide sustainable and reliable health care services to their patients.

The 13th edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals®: National Benchmarks for Success study analyzed acute care hospitals nationwide using detailed empirical performance data from 2005, including publicly available Medicare MEDPAR data and Medicare cost reports.

The Solucient study found that the nation’s top performing hospitals are more likely to adopt important new patient care technologies and treat a larger percentage of people in their communities than other acute care U.S. hospitals.  In fact, if all acute care U.S. hospitals performed at the same level as the nation’s top hospitals, 106,000 more Medicare patients could survive and an additional 117,000 patient stays could be complication free each year – at an estimated annual savings of more than $7.6 billion. Additionally, the average patient stay would decrease by more than half a day.

Among the key findings from the study:

Hospitals in the Top 100 list are more likely to be early adopters of new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies than non-winning or “peer” hospitals. Top 100 hospitals are more likely than their peers to administer newer drugs to ischemic stroke patients or those undergoing coronary balloon angioplasty surgery.

Benchmark hospitals are also more likely to have a larger share of the market in their communities than their peers, particularly in specialties such as cardiology, neurology, pulmonary, urology, and gastroenterology.

“The exceptional performance of the 100 Top Hospitals award winners brings real value to their communities,” said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president of Solucient's Center for Healthcare Improvement, which is responsible for the 100 Top Hospitals program. “Spurred by the use of new medical technologies, these hospitals offer patients higher survival rates, more complication-free care, and more efficient delivery of care than other hospitals.”