Healthgrades Releases 2021 Analysis of Top Hospitals for Specialty Care

Healthgrades 2021 Report to the Nation Evaluates the Risks Associated with Outcomes in Elective Care and Shows Why Consumers Should Research Hospital Quality to Make Informed Healthcare Decisions

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Healthgrades, the leading resource that connects consumers, physicians and health systems, today released its 2021 analysis of top-performing hospitals for specialty care, as well as the recipients of the Healthgrades 2021 Specialty Excellence Awards, which recognize hospitals with superior performance in specific specialty lines and specialty focus areas.

The analysis shows that clinical outcomes continue to differ dramatically between hospitals in the top and bottom of Healthgrades’ hospital performance categories. In fact, patients treated at a hospital receiving a 5-star rating have, on average, a lower risk of a complication or mortality than if treated at a hospital receiving a 1-star rating in that procedure or condition. Additionally, if all hospitals as a group performed similarly to hospitals receiving 5-stars as a group, 218,785 lives could potentially have been saved and complications in 148,681 patients could potentially have been avoided*.

In conjunction with the analysis, the company also published the Healthgrades 2021 Report to the Nation: A Safe Return to Quality Care, which provides an in-depth review and data analysis—with an additional focus on common elective surgeries—to show how consumers can use quality ratings as a resource for making informed healthcare decisions. As hospitals across the country have seen elective surgeries rebound, the Report to the Nation specifically looks at risk factors associated with outcomes in elective care, as well as the relative performance of 5-star hospitals vs 1- and 3-star hospitals and what that means for patients. It also includes firsthand testimonials from hospital executives, who share how their organizations safely returned patients to care and how COVID-19 has impacted their quality improvement initiatives.

“Healthgrades has a long-standing commitment to providing greater transparency when it comes to hospital quality,” said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Healthgrades. “Our analysis is designed to help consumers better understand the importance of hospital quality and how it can affect patient care, which has never been more important.”

“Our continuous focus on quality improvement has not changed throughout this pandemic,” said Dr. Philip Falcone, Medical Director of Quality, St. Joseph’s Health in Syracuse, NY. “Quality improvement initiatives continue to revolve around reducing the risks of harm and achieving a high-quality outcome for all of our patients every day.”

Read the 2021 Healthgrades Report to the Nation here.

For more information on how Healthgrades measures hospital quality, access the complete methodology. Learn more about how hospitals partner with Healthgrades.

About Healthgrades:

Healthgrades is dedicated to empowering stronger and more meaningful connections between patients and their healthcare providers. At Healthgrades, we help millions of consumers each month find and schedule appointments with their provider of choice. With our scheduling solutions and advanced analytics applications, we help our health system and life sciences clients cultivate new patient relationships, improve patient access, and build customer loyalty. At Healthgrades, better health gets a head start.

* Statistics are based on Healthgrades’ analysis of MedPAR data for years 2017 through 2019 and represent three-year estimates for Medicare patients only.