Raising the Bar in Health Care
to Save Lives…

You have probably seen a pole vaulter at a track and field event at some time during your life – back when you were an athlete in school or even just while watching a sporting event on TV. So I’m sure you are familiar with the concept of the bar – and it continually being raised in order for the athlete to run, jump and leap over it at various heights.

“Raising the bar” also can happen in the world of health care and – here at Kettering Health Network, you are once again our “pole vaulters,” helping us clear the bar and achieve even higher levels of quality and excellence in health care.

I am referring to the recent news that Kettering Health Network has been recognized by Thomson Reuters as one of the Top 10 Health Systems in the nation for the second consecutive year! What wonderful and exciting news this is for our organization!

The announcement was published in Modern Healthcare magazine on June 21 and details can be viewed at http://www.100tophospitals.com/ or http://thomsonreuters.com/.

The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals Health System Benchmarks is an annual, quantitative study. With objective, independent research using public data sources, they identify the 10 health systems setting the highest benchmarks on a modified 100 Top Hospitals Balanced Scorecard focused on clinical quality and efficiency.

The winners of this award outperformed their peers by providing better care, following standards of care more closely, saving more lives, creating fewer patient complications, making fewer patient safety errors, and earning better overall patient satisfaction scores. It really is all about saving lives and significantly reducing the suffering of thousands of people.

In fact, this year America’s Top 10 Health Systems had:

• 12.3 percent fewer mortalities
• 13.2 percent fewer complications
• 5.4 percent better patient safety than their peers
• Patients returning home sooner – with an average length of stay more than half a day shorter than at similar systems – and with better longer-term outcomes.

Frank J. Perez, FACHE Chief Executive Officer Kettering Health Network