The Danville News
DANVILLE — For the fifth time, Geisinger Medical Center has been named one of the top 100 cardiovascular hospitals in the country.
The 2007 Thomson 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study, which annually identifies high-performing cardiovascular hospitals nationally, examined nearly 1,000 hospitals by analyzing their outcomes for eight measures related to congestive heart failure, heart attacks, bypass surgery, angioplasties, and other coronary interventions.
GMC was one of only 30 teaching hospitals with cardiovascular residency programs to be selected. Other hospitals in the category included Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison, Wisc., and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
"We are committed to performing at a level that continually meets or exceeds that of the nation's top hospitals," said Dr. Joseph Bisordi, GMC's chief medical officer. "This commitment to quality at Geisinger is evident to our patients and the community when we are selected for national awards such as this on a consistent basis."
GMC outperformed Thomson's benchmark for teaching hospitals with residency programs in four leading indicators: Risk -adjusted coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patient mortality index, risk adjusted post-operative infection index, severity-adjusted length of stay and average cost per case.
This is an improvement over last year's report when Geisinger exceeded the median benchmarks in two indicators.
"We are very excited about receiving this national recognition for the second consecutive year," said Jeffrey Tiesi, Geisinger's vice president of cardiovascular services. "The recent success of our ProvenCare Program and our commitment to surpassing national standards of delivery of cardiovascular patient care have played a significant role in this achievement."
If peer hospitals provided the same quality of care as the 100 Top Hospitals, survival rates would increase by more than 8,000 patients nationally each year. Complications of care could also decrease in peer hospitals.
Approximately 575 additional patients across the country could be complication-free.
This achievement by GMC marks the seventh time that a Geisinger Health System hospital has been recognized by Thomson as a Top 100 hospital. GMC earned previous Thomson recognition for academic medical centers and has also been included on Thomson's Best Hospitals list for Performance Improvement Leaders.
Geisinger Wyoming Valley Hospital in Wilkes-Barre previously earned a place on Thomson's 100 Top Hospitals National Benchmarks for Success list in the category for medium-size community hospitals.
