Loyola named a top Cardiovascular Hospital

Loyola University Medical Center was named to the 100 Top Hospitals® for cardiovascular care by Solucient, a health-care information company.

The 2006 study looks at the nation's highest performers on key criteria in cardiovascular care. Loyola was one of only six health-care providers in Illinois listed and one of only two that is a teaching hospital that also offers residency programs in cardiovascular care. This is the third time Loyola has been named to the Solucient cardiovascular list.

Among the key findings of the study:

• The average 100 Top Hospitals®: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success winner meets the recommended core measures standards for 95 percent of its heart attack (acute myocardial infarction) patients, compared with 93 percent at the average peer, or non-winning, hospital. Similar differences were seen for congestive heart failure patients. Core measures — a set of widely accepted minimum standards of care for all patients, based on scientific evidence — are used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), and approved by the National Quality Forum.
• Both medical and surgical cardiovascular patients experience markedly higher survival rates at winning hospitals.
• If peer hospitals (non-winners) provided the same quality of cardiovascular care as the 100 Top Hospitals® facilities, survival rates could increase by more than 8,000 patients each year.
• Complications of care could decrease in peer hospitals. Approximately 575 additional patients could be complication-free.
• Hospitals were scored in eight key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, risk-adjusted complications, core measures score, percentage of coronary artery bypass graft patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage- and severity-adjusted average cost.