Many CEOs lauded their staffs when asked to identify why they were consistently on the top 100 list. Southeastern Oklahoma, part of the Health Management Associates chain, also is one of 26 investor-owned hospitals making the list this year. Many of the winners spoke of the value of long tenures among the administrative and physician leadership. The list encourages awareness of industrywide benchmarks and measuring performance against peers. The top hospitals have taken median average length of stay to a five-year low of 4.1 days this year.
Some organizations use the list's indicators as benchmarks to help set direction.
Inova Fairfax is one of 37 in the 100 Top Hospitals from the south. The south leads the three other regions in the number of hospitals on the list, but it trails the north central region in the percentage of hospitals on the list. An effective counter to falling reimbursement levels is simply to earn more. CEOs such as Evanston Northwestern's Neaman say system revenue growth is what has allowed their organizations to invest in the physicians and information systems that make outstanding clinical outcomes possible. Within the small hospital, medium hospital and teaching hospital categories, the median benchmark hospital had a higher percentage of total revenue coming from outpatient services than the median peer hospital.