The Top 100 Hospitals- Really??????

Published

http://www.100tophospitals.com/default.aspx

Two of the local hospitals in the Sacramento area were put on this list. The interesting thing is that in the community (and among those in health care), they really aren't known as the better hospitals. If one looks at other sites, like Hospital Compare, or HMO Report Card, and even the Joint Commission site, the honored hospitals rank below national average. I don't even think most of the hospitals in our area participated in this particular study.

My question is this -- do agencies like Solucient and Press-Ganey just take a large amount of cash from these health systems to make the hospitals 'honorary' so that the hospitals can be used as a marketing tool to attract patients and more business? Is that what these titles all boil down to, or is there some real merit behind this?

Thanks in advance!

-Mark

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Specializes in ED, Cardiac Medicine, Retail Health.

Maybe certain hosptitals pay big money to be listed.

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Yeah ... one of the hospitals on that list is in my area and, it sucks. They basically pay for that listing so they can use it in advertising. They need it because their reputation is in the toilet.

:typing

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???? No NY hospital? I wonder how they came up with this list.

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Specializes in OB.

No Mayo Clinic, Duke or Johns Hopkins either? LOL

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

That list seems hokey too me as well. The hospital I used to work for is really a nice small community hospital but has/had a bad reputation because we are small (120 beds) we were on that top 100 hospital list for like 8 years in a row. I was told it was because we had a low nosocomial infection rate and it was this same company. We're not on it this year. Census has been awesome, we've even been on diversion several times. Perhaps they didn't feel the need to pay for the "honor" this year. :lol2:

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Specializes in Cardiac Tele, MICU RN.

Wow, my hospital is one of the top hospitals selected and I very pleased to even their name selected out of all the hospitals in Michigan that they could have chose from. But, I don't know how they went by selecting these hospitals, its just nice to know that I am part of a respectable team.

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Specializes in Ambulatory | Management | Informatics.

Well, here's how they calculate the list. Seems pretty legit. Or at least more legit than those "who's who" books!

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Well, here's how they calculate the list. Seems pretty legit. Or at least more legit than those "who's who" books!

From the website:

"Building the database of hospitals, including special selection and exclusion criteria..."

Selection = paid our agency X amount of $$$

Exclusion = said, "No thanks - we don't want to pay.." ????

My question is this (not just limited to this particular agency or study) -- do agencies like Solucient and Press-Ganey just take a large amount of cash from these health systems to make the hospitals 'honorary' so that the hospitals can be used as a marketing tool to attract patients and more business?

-Mark

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It's a pay off. One hospital I worked at in So. Cal. was the worst of the worst, and they got 2003 best places to work. The turn over rate was 90% (nursing) every two weeks for the longest time. Go figure-

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Specializes in Ambulatory | Management | Informatics.
"Building the database of hospitals, including special selection and exclusion criteria..."

Selection = paid our agency X amount of $$$

Exclusion = said, "No thanks - we don't want to pay.." ????

From the page I linked and a continuation of your quote:

The main steps we take in selecting the 100 Top National benchmark hospitals are:

Building the database of hospitals, including special selection and exclusion criteria:

This study focuses on short-term, acute care, non-federal U.S. hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of patients. The data come from public sources including the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data set, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Standard Analytical File (SAF) outpatient data set, and the Medicare Cost Report

bolding mine

I don't know about you but that criteria doesn't sound like 'pay us' to me. To each their own interpretation, I guess.

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From the page I linked and a continuation of your quote:

bolding mine

I don't know about you but that criteria doesn't sound like 'pay us' to me. To each their own interpretation, I guess.

Correct. My understanding is that you have to pay the agency to have your data included in the study. If you opt out, then they don't look at data pertaining to results from your hospital.

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