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Lakeland Health Ranked Top 15 in U.S. Health Systems

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Even as work on a multi-million dollar investment and expansion of its regional medical center in St. Joseph continues today, the Lakeland Health team is proving there are solid reasons to continue to work diligently to get better with every step you take. Their never-ending work to be the best has been rewarded with word that they have been named one of the nation’s 15 Top U.S. Health Systems by Truven Health Analytics, which is part of the IBM Watson Health business. Truven Health Analytics is a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare. Lakeland Health was also recognized as a Truven Health Analytics 100 Top Hospital in 2014.

This year’s 15 Top Health Systems study evaluated 337 health systems and 2,924 member hospitals to identify the 15 U.S. health systems with the highest overall achievement on a balanced scorecard. The scorecard is based on the 100 Top Hospitals national balanced scorecard methodologies and focuses on five performance domains:

  • Inpatient outcomes
  • Process of care
  • Extended outcomes
  • Efficiency
  • Patient experience

Dr. Loren Hamel, President & CEO of Lakeland Health says, “Being recognized as one of the 15 top health systems in the nation is a direct reflection of the work our team members are doing each and every day to provide high quality, compassionate care to our friends and neighbors in southwest Michigan.”

Spectrum Health of Grand Rapids was the only other Michigan hospital system included in the Top 15 this year.

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Based on the results of this year’s study, winning health systems were able to achieve the following compared to non-winning peer systems:

  • 17.5-percent shorter wait times in the emergency department
  • 13.4-percent fewer in-hospital deaths
  • 8.5-percent fewer complications
  • 10.2-percent shorter length of hospital stays

Jean Chenoweth is Senior Vice Presidewnt for Performance Improvement and the 100 Top Hospitals program at Truven Health Analytics. She tells us, “The study recognizes these 15 health systems that have proven it is possible to drive down expense while improving the quality of care.” She also points out, “More importantly, the leaders of these health systems are demonstrating the power of aligning best practices across multiple hospitals to achieve greater levels of efficiency while delivering higher overall standards of care.”

The winners of this year’s 15 Top Health Systems award outperformed their peers in a number of ways. They:

  • Saved 66,000 more lives and caused 43,000 fewer patient complications
  • Followed industry-recommended standards of care more closely (97.3-percent versus 95.8-percent)
  • Released patients from the hospital a half day sooner
  • Readmitted patients less frequently and experienced fewer deaths within 30 days of admission
  • Had nearly 18-percent shorter wait times in their emergency departments
  • Had over 5-percent lower Medicare beneficiary cost per 30-day episode of care
  • Scored nearly 7 points higher on patient overall rating of care

The winning hospitals were announced in the April 24th edition of Modern Healthcare magazine. For more information, visit www.100tophospitals.com.

Click the link below to read the full report on the 15 Top Health Systems in the nation:

http://100tophospitals.com/Portals/2/assets/0417_15_Top_Health_Systems_Study.pdf