Ann Arbor's Truven Finds Nonprofit, Church-Owned Hospitals Perform Better
ANN ARBOR -- Not-for-profit, church-owned hospitals perform better than publicly- and privately-held institutions on quality, efficient return to daily life and patient satisfaction, all related to their religious mission, according to study results released today by Truven Health Analytics.
As a follow-up to its annual 100 Top Hospitals study, Truven Health Analytics has published two new papers that evaluate hospital performance by ownership, size, and teaching status.
"The type of benchmarking analysis that our 100 Top Hospitals team has done in these studies is critical for all healthcare providers and payers as they pursue continuous improvements in cost and quality," said Mike Boswood, Truven Health Analytics president and CEO. "By identifying the specific variables that account for differences, we are able to help healthcare professionals improve outcomes nationwide."
The first paper, Hospital Performance Differences by Ownership, found that patients in not-for-profit, church-owned hospitals had shorter lengths of stay (4.94 days, compared to 5.11 for other not-for-profits, 5.08 for for-profits, and 5.17 for government-run hospitals), better mortality rates, and higher levels of overall satisfaction.
The second paper, Hospital Performance Differences by Size and Teaching Status, found significant differences in performance when measuring for hospital size and teaching status, but no one category was found to be superior in all metrics. Larger hospitals were found to have the lower inpatient and 30-day mortality rates, while major teaching hospitals were found to have a higher rate of complications and lower patient safety scores.
"As health care becomes increasingly transparent, performance differences that stem from mission and role considerations, such as not-for-profit church-owned or for-profit, are likely to play an increasingly greater part in consumer decisions," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president at Truven Health Analytics. "There are top performers in each of the sectors we examined in these two papers. Our studies offer baseline performance indicators that will help us understand the transformation of hospitals under reform and better understand the impact on the community over the next five years."
The study analyzed the 2013 100 Top Hospitals database, which includes MedPAR public use files for federal fiscal years 2010 and 2011 for the mortality, complications, and patient safety measures. Other measures, such as length of stay, are based on the most recent single year that MedPAR data was available: 2011. Additional measures are derived from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Hospital Compare database or the Medicare Cost Reports filed by hospitals.
Truven Health Analytics delivers information, analytic tools, benchmarks and services to hospitals, government agencies, employers, health plans, clinicians, and pharmaceutical companies. Truven Health Analytics combines deep clinical, financial and healthcare management expertise with innovative technology platforms and information assets to make healthcare better, collaborating with customers to uncover and realize opportunities for improving quality, efficiency, and outcomes.
More at www.truvenhealth.com.
