America's 50 best hospitals 2008 released by He...( GOLDEN Colo. (February 25 2008) Hea...),Health

GOLDEN, Colo. (February 25, 2008) HealthGrades, the nations leading independent healthcare ratings organization, today identified Americas 50 Best Hospitals, an elite class of top-performing facilities. The HealthGrades Americas 50 Best Hospital designation represents the healthcare industrys only quality ranking based solely on objective clinical outcomes among U.S. hospitals.

To identify the 2008 designees, HealthGrades researchers analyzed approximately 100 million hospitalization records from nearly 5,000 hospitals, from the years 1999 to 2006. To be listed among Americas 50 Best Hospitals, facilities must have demonstrated clinical outcomes among the top five percent in the nation, not just in one medical specialty, but aggregated across 27 different procedures and diagnoses, and must have maintained this superior level of care during all years studied. These hospitals were found to have an average 27 percent lower mortality rate, on average, than all other U.S. hospitals.

HealthGrades Americas 50 Best Hospitals demonstrate survival rates that are among the highest in the nation, and complication rates that are among the lowest in the nation, and they do it year after year, said Dr. Samantha Collier, HealthGrades' chief medical officer and lead study author. These hospitals are proof that top-notch medical care is something that can be achieved with dedication and commitment to quality. As our nation increasingly focuses on disparities in healthcare cost and quality, it is these elite, world-class facilities that will lead the way.

For the second consecutive year, the HealthGrades Americas 50 Best Hospitals list contains nationally known facilities, such as Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles, Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland. But the list also identifies many hospitals that do not have national brand names, but that continue to demonstrate patient outcomes that are superior to their peers across the cou
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