Wake Forest Baptist Health - High Point Medical Center has been recognized as one of the top community cardiovascular hospitals in the IBM Watson Health™ 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals™ annual study. The study identifies the top U.S. academic and community hospitals for inpatient cardiovascular services based on a balanced national scorecard of hospital performance metrics. The Watson Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals study, formerly the Truven Health Analytics® 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals study, has been conducted since 1998.
“High Point Medical Center is dedicated to providing high quality heart and vascular services,” said Jason Carter, Associate Vice President of Clinical Operations at High Point Medical Center. “We have an outstanding cardiology team who is committed to providing the very best care for every patient in our community. We are very proud to be recognized as one of the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals in the US.”
This year's study included 989 US hospitals with cardiovascular service lines. Based on comparisons between the study winners and a peer group of similar hospitals in the study, the winners delivered better outcomes while operating more efficiently and at a lower cost. Extrapolating the results of this year's study, if all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities:
- More than 11,000 additional lives could be saved;
- More than 2,800 additional heart patients could be complication-free; and
- Over $1.5 billion could be saved.
"By finding ways to continuously improve and innovate, the winners of our 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals study are identifying opportunities to deliver healthcare value to patients, communities, and payers," said Ekta Punwani, MHA, 100 Top Hospitals® program leader at IBM Watson Health. "The top performing hospitals demonstrated better clinical care and were more efficient than their peers at delivering this care."
Kyu Rhee, M.D., M.P.P., vice president and chief health officer at IBM Watson Health, added: "Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women and numerous health disparities exist in heart health. When patients and families confront this disease, it is essential to find the right system and provider for you or your loved ones to ensure the best cardiovascular care. Our data-driven study highlights top hospitals that have achieved an outstanding balance of clinical and operational excellence in a complex healthcare landscape. In addition to showcasing the best in heart health, we believe that our study provides attainable and actionable benchmarks for hospital leaders across the country, as they work to raise their own organizations' standards of performance."
Following are some of the key performance benchmarks set by this year's Watson Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals:
- Significantly Higher Inpatient Survival: Winning hospitals had significantly higher inpatient survival rates (28.7% to 47.4% higher).
- Fewer Complications: The 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals achieved 6.3 to 27.7 percent fewer patients with complications.
- Lower Cost: $1,485 to $6,704 less in total costs per patient case (the smallest difference was for HF, and the largest was for CABG).
- Lower Average 30-day Episode of Care Payments for AMI and HF ($1,323 and $706 less per episode, respectively).
A full list of the IBM Watson Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals can be found at: www.ibm.com/watson-health
Media Contact:
Becky Kreitz, 336-878-6711 (o) 336-706-1886 (c)