Four West Mich. hospitals ranked among top 100 nationally

Four West Mich. hospitals ranked among top 100 nationally
Spectrum Health Blodgett hospital in East Grand Rapids.

Spectrum Health’s Butterworth, Blodgett and Zeeland Community hospitals, plus Mercy Health Saint Mary’s in Grand Rapids, are among the top 100 hospitals in the U.S. this year, according to a Fortune/IBM Watson Health ranking released today.

Spectrum’s Butterworth Hospital in downtown Grand Rapids and Blodgett Hospital in East Grand Rapids have made the list since 2010 as among the nation’s top 15 large teaching hospitals. Zeeland Community was named a 100 Top Hospital for small community hospitals for the seventh time.

“Being named to this prestigious list reflects the dedicated work of our team members and physicians as they care for our patients each day. This is a testament to their outstanding efforts on behalf of our communities,” Dr. Darryl Elmouchi, president of Spectrum Health West Michigan, said in a statement.

Mercy Health Saint Mercy’s ranked among the top 15 teaching hospitals for the third year.

IBM Watson Health researchers evaluated 2,675 U.S. hospitals this year using data on Medicare inpatients and a series of metrics to measure their performance in clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, patient experience and financial health. IBM Watson Health estimates that if all hospitals performed as the top 100, it would result in more than 79,000 additional lives saved annually, more than 44,000 patients experiencing no complications, more than $10.1 billion in inpatient costs saved, and more than 34,000 fewer readmissions among Medicare patients within 30 days.

Working with Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity and Bloomberg American Health Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, IBM Watson Health this year added metrics on hospitals’ contributions to community health with a focus on equity.

“Hospitals save lives both by caring for individuals who are sick and by working to keep their communities healthy,” Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement and director of the Bloomberg American Health Initiative, said in a statement. “By recognizing hospital excellence in community health with a focus on equity, IBM Watson Health is helping advance the broad and urgent mission of healthcare in the twenty-first century.”

Other Michigan hospitals in the top 100 this year are Ascension Providence in Southfield and St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor among large teaching hospitals; McLaren Northern Michigan in Petoskey as a medium-sized community hospital; and St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea as a small community hospital.

Among the 50 states, Michigan ranked in the top 20 percent for hospitals that IBM Watson Health evaluated.