8/7/2019 HG_tipSheet_HPR_FiveStarHospitals

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About HealthGrades

HealthGrades is the leading healthcare ratings organization, providingratings and pro les of hospitals,nursing homes and physicians toconsumers, corporations, healthplans and hospitals. Millionsof consumers and hundreds of the nation’s largest employers,health plans and hospitals rely onHealthGrades’ independent ratings,consulting and products to makehealth care decisions based on thequality of care.

More InformationHealthGrades can help yourorganization achieve its strategicobjectives of improving quality and growing revenue, see more athealthgrades.com/business .

What Do Five-Star HospitalsHave in Common?

For patients, thedifference between

a 1-star or 5-starhospital can meanthe surviving thehospitalization

or not.

Tip SheetHospital Public Relations

Since 1999 HealthGrades has been evaluating clinicalquality outcomes for hospitals across the country.

HealthGrades rates hospitals across nearly 30 diagnoses and procedures. For each category,hospitals are assigned a 1-star, 3-star, or 5-star rating based on their rates of risk-adjustedmortality or inhospital complications. For patients, the di erence between a 1-star or 5-starhospital can mean surviving the hospitalization or not. In our 2010 study, we found that onaverage, a typical patient has an almost 72% lower chance of dying in a 5-star hospital than a1-star hospital.

Te question HealthGrades o en receives from hospital executives is: what do 5-starhospitals have in common? From years of working with hospitals across the country tounderstand and improve their quality outcomes,we have found that 5-star hospitals sharethese common characteristics:

• Tere is a very clear vision set by the leadership. Every single hospital has somemention of quality in its mission statement. What separates the best-performinghospitals is that they o en have an ambitious quality goal such as to be #1 in their Stateor Region. Tis vision is then delineated clear de nition of what that means by serviceline. Tis vision and de nition is then transparent throughout the organization andevery Manager in the organization is incentivized on meeting the quality goals.

• Quality is not delegated to the CMO or the Quality Department. Te CEO sees

him/herself directly accountable for the quality outcomes and participates in quality improvement initiatives sending the clear message that quality is a strategic imperative.O en, members of the board will also participate in quality teams.

• op-performing hospitals follow the evidence. Where there is evidence, they enforceadherence and where this is no evidence or the evidence is unclear, they study theirown experiences to come up with the most e ective processes

• No individual is seen as more important than the care of the patient. In the best-

performing hospitals, once a process is agreed upon adopted, not following the processresults in consequences. Order sets are a perfect example of this. Many hospitals spendhours and hours working on the perfect order set but then when you pull the charts,you nd that no one is using the order set. An order set is only useful if it is being used.

• Feedback is key. All hospitals have exceptional amounts of data. A key di erentiatorof top-performing hospitals is that they use the data that they have to make changes.Tey develop hospital-level, service-line level, and physician-level dashboards.

• Physicians don’t participate in QI Committees, they lead them. No one understandsphysicians better than physicians. Terefore a key to adoption of change is gettingphysicians engaged in quality. Look for physician leaders both in leadership positionsand aspiring physicians in your organization and recruit them to lead QI task forces.

And nally, top-performing hospitals never stop improving. Tey have a culture of noexcuses. Having sicker patients is not an excuse for poor quality outcomes or for not tryingto improve care. Good is never good enough.

And always remember, there is no single trick or roadmap to quality improvement. It is a journey and it o en requires short term pain to see the long-term gain.