St. David's HealthCare

St. David's HealthCare is one of the largest health systems in Texas and Austin's third-
largest private employer, with more than 60 sites throughout Central Texas, including
seven hospitals, four urgent care centers, four ambulatory surgery centers, and two
freestanding emergency departments, with a third set to open in Bastrop this summer.

St. David's HealthCare has a long history of serving the residents of Central Texas
with exceptional medical care. Our 7,500 employees touch over 858,000 lives each
year with a spirit of warmth, friendliness and personal pride.

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St. David's HealthCare Named Among the Top 15 Health Systems in the Country by Thomson Reuters

Monday, January 16, 2012

Thomson Reuters Announces Highest Performing Hospital SystemsThat Improve Quality, Have Lower 30-Day Mortality Rate

AUSTIN, Texas—Today, St. David’s HealthCare, along with two El Paso-based hospitals, which together make up the HCA Central and West Texas Division, were named among the nation’s 15 top U.S. health systems by Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of healthcare. The award recognizes hospital systems that have achieved excellence in clinical outcomes, patient safety, patient satisfaction and operational efficiency, based on balanced system-wide clinical performance.

Selected from more than 300 healthcare systems across the nation, St. David’s HealthCare and Las Palmas Del Sol Healthcare were among only two health systems in Texas to receive this ranking. The Thomson Reuters “15 Top Health Systems” study singled out 15 hospital systems that achieved superior clinical outcomes based on a composite score of eight measures of quality, patient perception of care and efficiency.

“We are pleased that our commitment to high-quality care is receiving national attention from such an esteemed organization as Thomson Reuters,” David Huffstutler, president and chief executive officer of St. David’s HealthCare, said. “The dedication of our doctors, nurses and staff to providing exceptional care to every patient every day has helped establish our system’s reputation as a national center of excellence.”

The following were among the key findings in the study:

  • Lower 30-Day Mortality Rates: 15 Top Health Systems held post-discharge 30-day mortality rates steady, while peer health systems demonstrated a significant increase in post-discharge mortality. 
  • Better Survival Rates: Winning hospitals had 17 percent fewer deaths than expected considering patient severity, while non-winning hospitals had 4 percent more deaths than expected. 
  • Fewer Complications: Patients of the winning health systems had 19 percent fewer complications. 
  • Shorter Hospital Stays: Patients treated in the winning system hospitals have a median average length of stay of 4.7 days, nearly half a day shorter than their peers’ median of 5.1 days.
  • Better Patient Safety and Core Measure Adherence: Top health systems had 23 percent fewer adverse patient safety events than expected and had better adherence to core measures of care than their peers. 

U.S. health systems with two or more short-term, general, non-federal hospitals; cardiac and orthopedic hospitals; and critical access hospitals were assessed in the study. Researchers looked at eight metrics that gauge clinical quality and efficiency: mortality, medical complications, patient safety, average length of stay, 30-day mortality rate, 30-day readmission rate, adherence to clinical standards of care (evidence-based core measures published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), and HCAHPS patient survey score (part of a national initiative sponsored by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to measure the quality of care in hospitals).

The study relied on public data from the 2010 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review data and the CMS Hospital Compare data sets.

Researchers from the Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals program have analyzed and reported on the performance of individual hospitals since 1993.

Please visit www.thomsonreuters.com for more information on the award and a full list of winners.



St. David’s HealthCare
With more than 60 sites across Central Texas, St. David’s HealthCare includes seven of the area’s leading hospitals and is one of the largest health systems in Texas. Known for compassionate, high-quality care, the organization has been recognized with the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the State of Texas based upon world-class quality measures. Ranked as one of the Top Workplaces in 2010 by the Austin American-Statesman—as well as the top Austin-area employer among large companies at the Austin Business Journal’s annual “Best Places to Work” event in 2007, 2008 and 2009—St. David’s HealthCare is the third-largest private employer in the Austin area, with more than 7,100 employees. For more information, please visit StDavids.com.

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