Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center Named one of Nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Solucient

March 10, WILKES-BARRE — Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center has been named one of the nation’s Top 100 Hospitals® by Solucient, the leading source of healthcare business intelligence.
The award recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in quality of care, operational efficiency, financial performance, and adaptation to the environment. This achievement by Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center marks the third time that a Geisinger Health System hospital has been recognized by Solucient as among the country’s top hospitals. Geisinger Medical Center in Danville previously earned this honor for large teaching hospitals, and is also listed on Solucient’s 2005 Best Hospitals list for Performance Improvement Leaders.

The 12th edition of Solucient’s 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success study appears in a special supplement to the February 28 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

“Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center continues on a significant growth pattern, enhancing and adding services while continuing to emphasize personal service and professional healthcare,” states Louis Shapiro, Chief Operating Officer for Geisinger’s Clinical Enterprise. “We are pleased that the overall efforts of our Geisinger Wyoming Valley team are being recognized with the honor of being named among the nation’s best hospitals.”

“We have an exceptional group of people and an expert medical staff at Geisinger Wyoming Valley that are committed to not only meeting, but exceeding patients’ expectations,” adds Medical Director Jeffrey Folk, MD. “It is gratifying that this talent is being recognized nationally by Solucient.”

Geisinger Wyoming Valley is a 159-bed (plus 16 bassinets) community hospital and secondary referral center recognized for its cardiology, oncology, surgery, orthopaedics, obstetrics-gynecology, pediatrics, emergency medicine and hospitalist services. Located in Plains Township near Wilkes-Barre, the medical center campus includes The Heart Hospital at Geisinger Wyoming Valley, The Frank and Dorothea Henry Cancer Center, The Janet Weis Children’s Hospital Pediatrics Unit at Geisinger Wyoming Valley, and a newly remodeled obstetrics department. The medical center’s open medical staff consists of independent, community physicians and Geisinger-employed physicians.

“The new benchmark hospitals have set the bar much higher for patient outcomes, patient safety, operational performance and improved value for the community,” says Jean Chenoweth, Senior Vice President for Solucient’s Center for Healthcare Improvement, which is responsible for the 100 Top Hospitals program. “To achieve these new benchmarks, the whole organization—not just one clinical service line—must be aligned to achieve performance improvement goals. The Board, the management team, and the entire hospital and medical staff must align their efforts over years to reach national benchmark levels of performance.”

Among the study’s key findings:

• The 100 Top Hospitals treated sicker patients, yet had better outcomes.
• On average, benchmark hospitals released their patients nearly half a day earlier than peer hospitals.

The 12th edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success study analyzed acute care hospitals nationwide using detailed empirical performance data from 2003, including publicly available MedPAR data and Medicare cost reports. Facilities recognized on the list are represented across five hospital classes: Major Teaching (15 winners); Teaching (25 winners); Large Community, 250+ beds (20 winners); Medium Community, 100 to 249 beds (20 winners…including Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center); and Small Community, 25 to 99 beds (20 winners).

The study scored facilities according to key measures: risk adjusted mortality, complications, and patient safety index; average length of stay; expenses; profitability; cash to total debt ratio, tangible assets per adjusted discharge; and growth in percent of community served.

More information on the study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com.