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Dec 21: Memorial Hospital Central Named One of the Nation's Top Cardiovascular Hospitals by Thomson Healthcare

For Immediate Release

Dec. 21, 2007

Memorial Hospital Central has been named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals® for cardiovascular care by Thomson Healthcare.

The annual Thomson Healthcare award is based on hospitals' performance treating congestive heart failure and heart attacks. This is the fourth time Memorial has been recognized with this honor. The 2007 winners were recently announced in Modern Healthcare magazine.

"These winning hospitals bring great value to their communities," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs in the Center for Healthcare Improvement, Thomson Healthcare. "They have set national benchmarks for clinical process, outcomes, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness."

“At Memorial, we are committed to providing the highest quality care for our patients and have continually sought ways to keep improving our services,” said Memorial Health System CEO Dick Eitel. “We are very proud to receive this award that highlights our dedication to providing the best in cardiovascular care.”

Among the key findings from the 2007 Thomson 100 Top Hospitals: Cardiovascular Benchmarks for Success study:

  • If all cardiovascular hospitals achieved the same results as the 100 Top Hospitals award winners, more than 7,000 lives would be saved and nearly 750 medical complications would be avoided annually.
  • The award winners reported hospital stays that were 12 percent shorter, on average, than peer hospitals (5.14 days compared with 5.85 days).
  • The 100 Top Hospitals reported costs that averaged 13 percent — or about $2,000 — less per case than peer hospitals.
  • There was a large difference in the volume of heart procedures performed by the winning hospitals and their peers. The 100 Top Hospitals performed nearly two-thirds more coronary artery bypass grafts and percutaneous coronary interventions such as angioplasty.

Thomson Healthcare scored facilities in eight key performance areas: risk-adjusted medical mortality, risk-adjusted surgical mortality, risk-adjusted complications, core measures score, percentage of CABG patients with internal mammary artery use, procedure volume, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage- and severity-adjusted average cost.

The measures were calculated for three classes of hospitals with the following number of winners in each:

  • Teaching with cardiovascular residency programs, 30 winners
  • Teaching without cardiovascular residency programs, 40 winners
  • Community, 30 winners

About Thomson:

Thomson Healthcare is the leading provider of decision support solutions that help organizations across the healthcare industry improve clinical and business performance. Thomson Healthcare products and services help clinicians, hospitals, employers, health plans, government agencies, and pharmaceutical companies manage the cost and improve the quality of healthcare.

Thomson Healthcare is a part of The Thomson Corporation, a provider of value-added information, software tools and applications to professionals in the fields of healthcare, law, tax, accounting, scientific research, and financial services. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC). For more information, visit www.thomsonhealthcare.com.

More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tohospitals.com. Copies of the 100 Top Hospitals report can be purchased by calling Thomson Healthcare at (800) 568-3282 or logging on to www.100tophospitals.com.

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For more information, please contact Memorial Health System’s public relations office at (719) 365-5235.