Asante earns 15 Top status for the ninth year in a row!

It’s time for some great news. Once again, Asante has earned a place among the IBM Watson Health 15 Top Health Systems in the country. All the more remarkable, we’ve earned that recognition for nine years in a row.

“This past year has brought unique challenges. Our employees, nurses, medical staff, leadership and volunteers have met those challenges with great resilience,” said Scott Kelly, Asante president and CEO. “This award recognizes their hard work and ingenuity to find new ways to provide safe, great care that supports our patients and community.”

This year’s study evaluated 324 health systems and 2,522 hospitals across the nation. The annual list identifies the top 15 health systems with the highest overall achievement in clinical outcomes, operational efficiency and patient experience.

“The commitment of our clinicians and caregivers to drive best practices to deliver safe, quality care was intensified by the pandemic,” said Dr. Jamie Grebosky, chief medical officer. “Asante will continue to evolve to meet new challenges and to embrace opportunities for best practices that benefit our patients.”

IBM Watson Health established the 15 top list to identify performance benchmarks that may help other health care organizations achieve consistent, balanced and sustainable high performance.

The organizations included on the IBM Watson Health 15 Top Health Systems list reported:

• Lower inpatient mortality rates and fewer patient complications, considering patient severity
• Care that resulted in fewer health-care-associated infections
• Lower 30-day readmission rates
• Shorter lengths of stay
• Faster emergency care
• Higher scores on patient ratings of their overall hospital experience
• Lower episode-of-care expenses

As a reward to the more than 6,000 employees who helped make this happen, Asante once again will offer commemorative T-shirts. Details on when and where the shirts will be distributed will be shared this summer.

And, for the eighth time, Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center has been named to the Fortune/IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals list in addition to earning a spot on the Top 50 Cardiovascular Hospitals list.

For the 100 Top list, IBM Watson Health evaluated 2,675 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals in the United States to compile its list that recognizes excellence in clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, patient experience and financial health.

Included in this year’s ranking of top hospitals is a measure of a hospital’s contributions to community health with a focus on equity. Hospitals were surveyed on three components:

• Assessing hospital contributions to community health as a provider of critical services for community health and preventive care.
• Identifying ways that hospitals contribute to community health as a community partner teaming up with local organizations to implement critical programs.
• Focusing on how hospitals promote community health through their practices as anchor institutions supporting local economic and social progress.

IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospitals had better results on key clinical and operational performance indicators, including better patient survival rates, fewer patient complications and health-care-associated infections, lower 30-day mortality and readmission rates, shorter lengths of stay, lower inpatient expenses and higher patient experience ratings.

“Receiving this honor is especially meaningful this year after the unprecedented challenges our doctors, nurses and employees have faced due to the pandemic,” said Mick Zdeblick, hospital CEO. “This award reflects their enduring commitment to the health and safety of our entire community.”