50 of the best hospitals

Hospitals in America

Each year in America - or for the last four years at least, HealthGrades has identified the 50 best hospitals, which basically, are the ones you want to be attending if something happens to you.

The hospitals on the list are there as they provide outstanding clinical quality year after year. HealthGrades America's 50 Best Hospitals are those that have ranked among the top five percent in the nation for clinical quality.

Seventeen states have at least one hospital recognized on this list - with half of the hospitals located in three states - Ohio (18 percent), Florida (18 percent) and Pennsylvania (14 percent).

Of those featured in the top 50, out of 323 hospitals in California, three of them are featured in the list - Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center in Glendale; Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles; and St. John's Hospital Health Center in Santa Monica.

Distinction

The hospitals are chosen for the distinction on the basis of a close look at the mortality rates and the complication rates that their patients suffer after getting any one of 26 procedures or diagnoses, The LA Times reports, including bowel construction, heart failure and total knee replacement. Each hospital must not only provide at least 19 of the 26 diagnoses and procedures assessed; they must also perform better than the expected average on most of those measures. And finally, they have to have a track record of having been onHealthGrades' 269-hospital list of the nation's top hospitals for the last eight years.

If all US hospitals had performed from 2006-2008 at the level that HealthGrades' 50 top hospitals do, the organization estimates that 164,964 deaths might have been averted among Medicare patients alone, and that 18,900 Medicare patients who experienced in-hospital complications could have completed their treatment and gone home uneventfully.

Patients who receive their care at one of the hospitals on this list, will more than likely have a lower risk for an adverse clinical outcome relative to all other hospitals.

Jodie Humphries

Jodie Humphries graduated from Bath Spa University with a BA Hons in Creative Writing in 2008. She has worked for GDS Publishing for the digital group since July 2009. She has previous experience with writing for the web, running her own website since April 2007.

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