J-Co recognizes more top performing hospitals in 2011
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To make the list, hospitals had to receive a composite score of 95 percent or above on all of the accountability measures it reported to the Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based organization. Additionally, top-performing hospitals needed to meet or exceed the 95 percent performance mark on each of the accountability measures they reported.
"A 95 percent score means a hospital provided an evidence-based practice 95 times out of 100 opportunities to provide the practice," the Joint Commission said in its annual report on quality and safety. "Each accountability measure represents an evidence-based practice—for example, giving aspirin at arrival for heart attack patients, giving antibiotics one hour before surgery and providing a home management plan for children with asthma."
Overall performance on accountability measures has improved since 2002, when the organization began collecting such data, the Joint Commission said. For instance, performance on a heart attack care composite measure has increased to 98.5 percent in 2011, up from 88.6 percent in 2002. Performance on a composite measure of pneumonia care is 96.2 percent for 2011, up from 72.4 percent in 2002.
Approximately 18 percent of the 3,300 hospitals that submit data to the Joint Commission achieved the top-performer designation for performance in 2011, the Joint Commission said in the report. And 244 hospitals made the list both last year and this year.
"These hospitals are leading the way in quality improvement, as American hospitals continue to make strides," Joint Commission President Mark Chassin, MD, MPP, MPH, said in the report.
Download the complete report from the Joint Commission's website.