HealthGrades names Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence

HealthGrades has issued their annual study on hospital quality and clinical excellence (now in its fifth year):

The 2007 study found that 158,264 lives may have been saved and 12,410 major complications avoided during the 3 years studied, had the quality of care at all hospitals matched the level of those in the top five percent. These major complications include problems like post-op pneumonia, post-op respiratory failure, post-op bacterial infections, or post-op bleeding.

To name hospitals in the top five percent for clinical excellence, the HealthGrades’ study analyzed nearly 39 million hospitalizations over the years 2003, 2004 and 2005 at all 4,971 of the nation’s nonfederal, nonchildren’s, short-term acute care hospitals.

Click here to read the press release on the study. Click here to access the general HealthGrades website.