Metro health care provider gets high marks in national survey

By PAUL WALSH and WARREN WOLFE, Star Tribune Staff Writers

Last update: August 10, 2009 - 2:12 PM

A national study of hospital systems released today identified what it says are the top 10 in the country, including one from Minnesota.

Researchers from Thomson Reuters analyzed the quality and efficiency of 252 health systems that own 1,720 hospitals and found significant differences between top and bottom performers in several crucial areas.

Among the top 10 is HealthEast Care System, based in St. Paul. Nine of the top 10 are in the Midwest, four of those in Ohio.

Researchers looked at hospital mortality, medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay and use of evidence-based clinical practices, all 2006 and 2007 measures collected by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and adjusted to account for different types and backgrounds of patients.

Unlike Thompson Reuters' annual 100 Top Hospitals analysis, on which this study was based, the new study didn't include measures of financial performance because there isn't a source of reliable publicly available financial data at the system level, the researchers said.

Compared with the poorest performers, those ranking near the top had 25 percent lower mortality, 19 percent fewer medical complications and 13 percent fewer patient safety incidents, the study found.

HealthEast Care System, the largest health care provider in the east metro area, owns Woodwinds, St. Joseph's and St. John's Hospitals.

Other Minnesota firms in the top 50 health care systems are Allina Health System, Minneapolis; Fairview Health Services, Minneapolis; Mayo Foundation, Rochester, and St. Mary's/Duluth Clinic Health System, Duluth.

Thomson Reuters, which owns Reuters financial new service and sells financial, tax, health care and other data to businesses, said its researchers have analyzed the performance of individual hospitals since 1993 and provided that information to its customers.

Warren Wolfe • 612-673-7253

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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