St. Francis still in the top 100

Mirror staff

For the fourth consecutive year, St. Francis Hospital in Federal Way has been named one of the 100 top hospitals in the United States by a healthcare research organization.

Quality of care, operational efficiency and other measures were rated in the national study by Solucient Institute to determine the best-performing acute-care hospitals in 2002.

Solucient reported that if all acute-care hospitals functioned at the same level as St. Francis and the nation's other top hospitals, 84,000 more Medicare patients could survive, an additional 54,000 patient stays could be complication-free and an estimated $10 billion in healthcare costs could be saved each year.

Established in 1987, St. Francis has 110 beds and employs about 650 people. It’s part of Tacoma-based Franciscan Health System. Another Franciscan hospital, St. Clare in Lakewood, was named to the Top 100 for the third year in a row.

"We are proud of this national recognition," said Franciscan president Joe Wilczek said. He said the doctors, nurses, managers and other personnel at St. Francis and St. Clare “are role models for other healthcare professionals in the United States.”

By making Solucient’s list four straight years, St. Francis also is rated a “benchmark” hospital. According to Solucient, such hospitals are more likely to be early adopters of new diagnostic and therapeutic technologies, and had expenses per patient discharge that were nearly 19 percent lower than their peers ($3,795 versus $4,677).

In addition, the average operating profit margin for top-ranked hospitals was 7 percent, while non-ranked hospitals averaged 2 percent. The winning hospitals released patients a third of a day sooner, had 20 percent fewer workers (per 100 patient discharges), and had 20 percent more admissions per bed.

The award-winners are the cream of the crop, said Jean Chenoweth, executive director of Solucient.

"Spurred by the use of new medical technologies, these hospitals offer patient survival rates, more complication-free care, and more efficient services than other hospitals," Chenoweth said.

Solucient Institute, based in Evanston, Ill.. analyzed acute-care hospitals’ data from 2001, including public Medicare clinical data and Medicare cost reports.

Key scoring included risk-adjusted mortality and risk-adjusted complications, average length of patients’ stay, expenses, profitability, percent of outpatient revenue, and total asset turnover. More information is available on-line www.100tophospitals.com.

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