Oaklawn recognized as one of the nation's top 100 hospitals

Oaklawn is recognized as one of the nation’s top 100 hospitals

MARSHALL – Oaklawn’s excellent clinical and operational performance translates into improved health services for its patients, according to one of the country’s top health-care evaluators.

Michigan-based Truven Health Analytics, which is part of the IBM Watson Health business, has recognized Oaklawn on its most recent list of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals.

The company provides information and solutions that support healthcare cost and quality improvement. Its evaluation has been conducted annually since 1993. The winning hospitals were announced in the March 6 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

“Truven provides an academically driven study that evaluates clinical and operational performance in 11 areas,” said Ginger Williams, Oaklawn’s President and CEO. “This award reflects the hard work our staff has done to achieve the best possible results for Oaklawn’s patients.”

Of the 100 hospitals Truven ranked, Oaklawn was the only independent community hospital in Michigan listed in the category of small community hospitals, in which 20 recipients were ranked nationwide. It also was one of only two independent Michigan hospitals to receive the honor.

The list of award winners may be seen at 100tophospitals.com. More information about Truven Health Analytics may be found online at truvenhealth.com.

Pertinent areas Truven evaluated include medical efforts that address inpatient mortality, 30-day mortality rate, complications, core measures, readmission rate, average length of stay, emergency room throughput, inpatient expense per discharge, Medicare spend per beneficiary, adjusted operating profit margin and patient ratings of overall hospital performance.

Truven officials said that, based on 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:

– Nearly 89,000 additional lives could be saved.

– More than 61,000 additional patients could be complication-free.

– More than $5.6 billion in inpatient costs could be saved.

– The average patient stay would decrease by half a day.

– Over 300,000 fewer discharged patients would be readmitted within 30 days.

– Patients would spend nine minutes less in hospital emergency departments per visit.

“The magnitude of improvement we’ve observed [in the health-care industry] over the last five years is greater than any other five-year period we’ve tracked,” said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president at Truven Health Analytics.

“On top of that, this year’s winners have reached new highs in performance in comparison to peers across the country, which suggests that improvement in value from hospitals is likely to continue,” Chenoweth said.

“This is just the latest recognition Oaklawn’s hard-working staff has achieved in recent years for its efforts in patient safety and financial efficiency,”  Williams said.

In 2016, Oaklawn was one of just four hospitals in Michigan, and 102 U.S. hospitals, to earn five stars – the highest possible – in a ranking by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

“I’m very proud to be part of a health-care organization that works so hard to protect its patients, and to earn the trust of the communities it serves,” Williams said.