In a study of the nation's hospitals, University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics is listed as one of the 100 most-improved.
The study — conducted by Solucient, a health-care information company — evaluated hospitals licensed to treat Medicare patients. Five years of data was analyzed for the study, called "100 Top Hospitals: Performance Improvement Leaders."
"This national recognition is well-deserved by the staff, physicians, leadership team and the board of University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics," said Dr. Neil Kochenour, the hospital's medical director.
He continued: "To be named in this study, a hospital must have improved overall performance consistently, year after year, at a substantially faster rate than its peer institutions across the country."
From 1999 to 2003, hospitals included on the most-improved list made progress in four areas: patient deaths, discharge, expenses and profit margin.
Each hospital "went from having more patient deaths, complications and adverse safety events than expected to having fewer than expected." Patients at improved hospitals were shown to be discharged three-quarters of a day earlier than benchmark hospitals.
Also, expenses at improved hospitals were 14 percent lower than other hospitals.
University of Utah Hospitals & Clinics is one of 15 "major teaching" hospitals listed in the study. For more information, visit www.100tophospitals.com.
E-mail: nwarburton@desnews.com