CareChex Study Recognizes Nation's Top Quality Health Systems for Cardiac Care

June 16, 2015 - CareChex, a division of Comparion Medical Analytics, released a new study which identifies the nation's highest quality health systems for providing cardiac services. The study analyzed three years of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) using the company's patent-pending quality rating methodology. The methodology evaluates hospital adherence to clinical processes which represent the best standard of care and outcome performance on rates of mortality, complications and patient safety events.

The study recognized health systems whose quality performance was in the top 10 percent nationally for the following three clinical categories:

• Overall cardiac care;
• Heart attack treatment; and
• Heart failure treatment.

According to Dr. Thane Forthman, president and CEO of Comparion, "Assessment of health system performance for overall cardiac care included an evaluation of 32 medical conditions and 24 non-major surgeries such as defibrillator implants, pacemaker implants, angioplasties, and stents." The study did not include the evaluation of major cardiac surgeries such as heart bypass. Forthman added, "Given consumers' particular interest in the successful treatment of heart attacks and congestive heart failure, we displayed health system performance for these subsets of cardiac care separately."

The top quality health systems for each category are identified in rank order below:

Overall Cardiac Care – Top 10 Percent in Nation

1. Community Healthcare System, Hammond, Indiana
2. Memorial Healthcare System, Hollywood, Florida
3. Mount Sinai Health System, New York, New York
4. Sisters of Charity Health System, Cleveland
5. Scripps Health, San Diego
6. WellStar Health System, Marietta, Georgia
7. Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, Wheaton, Illinois
8. Advocate Health Care, Downers Grove, Illinois
9. St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Edgewood, Kentucky
10. Oakwood Healthcare, Dearborn, Michigan
11. HealthEast Care System, St. Paul, Minnesota
12. BayCare Health System, Clearwater, Florida
13. Sentara Healthcare, Norfolk, Virginia
14. Houston Methodist, Houston

Heart Attack Treatment – Top 10 Percent in Nation

1. St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Edgewood, Kentucky
2. Sisters of Charity Health System, Cleveland
3. Oakwood Healthcare, Dearborn, Michigan
4. UNC Health Care, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
5. Adventist HealthCare, Gaithersburg, Maryland
6. Scripps Health, San Diego
7. Advocate Health Care, Downers Grove, Illinois
8. WellStar Health System, Marietta, Georgia
9. Memorial Healthcare System, Hollywood, Florida
10. Banner Health, Phoenix
11. Allina Health, Minneapolis
12. Kettering Health Network, Dayton, Ohio

Heart Failure Treatment – Top 10 Percent in Nation

1. Beaumont Health System, Royal Oak, Michigan
2. Memorial Healthcare System, Hollywood, Florida
3. Broward Health, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
4. Advocate Health Care, Downers Grove, Illinois
5. Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Houston
6. University of Maryland Medical System, Baltimore
7. Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, Wheaton, Illinois
8. St. Luke's University Health Network, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
9. Methodist Health System, Dallas
10. BJC HealthCare, St. Louis
11. Avanti Hospitals, El Segundo, California
12. Mercy Health, Cincinnati

The study noted only Memorial Healthcare System and Advocate Health Care achieved top performance across all three categories.

For more information: www.carechex.com