Memorial Hermann The Woodlands named one of nation's best

HOUSTON -- For the fifth consecutive year, Memorial Hermann Health System has four hospitals among the nation’s 50 best hospitals, according to Healthgrades, the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals.

This distinction, which was achieved based on an evaluation of clinical performance over seven years, places Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital, Memorial Hermann Southeast Hospital, Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital, and Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital in the Top 1 percent of hospitals nationwide. More than 4,500 hospitals were evaluated by Healthgrades.

The outstanding performance of these four hospitals can be measured in preventable deaths. If all hospitals performed at the high level of the award recipients, 157,069 lives could have potentially been saved nationwide between 2010 and 2012. In other words, this translates to a 23.29 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate for the hospitals among the HealthgradesAmerica’s 50 Best HospitalsTM when compared to all other hospitals in the nation (across 19 procedures and conditions where in-hospital mortality was the clinical outcome).

Variation in hospital performance exists locally as well as nationally. For example, of the 15 hospitals in Houston evaluated for the treatment of heart attack, risk-adjusted in-hospital mortality rates ranged from 3.5 percent on the low end to 11.9 percent on the high end. This is a greater than three-fold difference in mortality rates.

“We are pleased with this distinction,” said M. Michael Shabot, M.D., Memorial Hermann Health System chief medical officer. “This recognizes the type of High Reliability Organization behaviors that gives our patients the comfort of knowing their loved ones are at hospitals where everyone not only cares about patient safety and quality, but are committed to it.”

Healthgrades America’s 50 Best Hospitals™ designation recognizes hospitals for consistent clinical excellence by identifying those that received a Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ for the most consecutive years.

“By choosing a hospital that has achieved the Healthgrades America’s 50 Best HospitalsAward™, consumers can expect a long-standing commitment to exceptional clinical care – and receive a quality of care that is among the highest quality medical care in the nation,” said Evan Marks, EVP, Informatics and Strategy, Healthgrades.

To be eligible for the Healthgrades Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™, a hospital had to have been evaluated for its performance in at least 21 of the 30 Healthgrades procedures and conditions, based on Medicare inpatient data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Medicare Provider Analysis and Review database. To learn more about how Healthgrades determines America’s Best Hospitals Award recipients, please visit www.healthgrades.com/quality.