St. Joseph Hospital was recently named one of the nation's 100 Top Hospitals by Solucient, an independent health care research organization.

The 100 Top Hospitals award recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in quality of care, operational efficiency, financial performance, and adaptation to the environment.

“We are honored to be in this elite group,” said Nancy Bitting, St. Joseph’s Chief Executive Officer. “I am really proud of all the hard work from the hospital’s employees and their focus on our mission of serving our community.”

Some noteworthy facts about Top 100 Hospitals include:

More complex cases: Research showed that emergency departments (EDs) at winners of the 100 Top Hospitals National award tend to have a higher percentage of patients requiring more complex treatment or admission to the hospital than EDs at non-winners.

Better patient safety: The 100 Top Hospitals also have better patient safety as indicated by risk-adjusted Patient Safety Indicator (PSI) rates that were significantly lower than non-winners.

Thousands of lives saved: Survival rates were higher at benchmark hospitals (96.9 percent) compared to the typical peer hospital (96.2 percent), translating into tens of thousands of lives saved. The 100 Top Hospitals treated sicker patients requiring more complex treatment, yet had better patient outcomes and lower costs.

Solucient maintains the nation's largest health care database, comprised of more than 22.6 million discharges per year from 2,900 hospitals to help recognize and set a standard of care across the nation. More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com.