Three Aurora Hospitals Named Top Performers in National Thomson Reuters Annual Survey

   Aurora hospitals in West Allis, Green Bay and Two Rivers among Thomson

        Reuters 100 Top Hospitals(R) Performance Improvement Leaders



    MILWAUKEE, Aug. 13 /EMWNews/ -- Three Aurora Health Care facilities

are among top U.S. hospitals identified by Thomson Reuter as having

demonstrated the fastest, most consistent improvement over five consecutive

years.



    Aurora West Allis Medical Center and Aurora BayCare Medical Center of

Green Bay were ranked in the Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals(R):

Performance Improvement Leaders, 5th Edition in the medium community

hospital category, while Aurora Medical Center in Two Rivers was listed

under small community hospitals. The only other Wisconsin hospital named

was Meriter Hospital in Madison, under the teaching hospitals category.



    "It's an honor to have our Aurora facilities recognized by Thomson

Reuters as top performers," stated Patrick Falvey, Ph.D., Aurora senior

vice president and chief integration officer. "Providing the best outcomes

for our patients remains a top priority that continues to receive national

attention but this designation specifically recognizes the pace at which we

have improved. The caregivers at these three medical centers reflect our

culture of rapid adoption and quality improvement."



    Thomson Reuters reports that overall, U.S. hospitals struggled to

improve their performance from 2002 to 2006, the period covered by the

study, but the winning hospitals illustrate that rapid, across-the-board

improvement is attainable.



    The study -- Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals(R): Performance

Improvement Leaders -- examined the performance of more than 2,800 U.S.

hospitals on a variety of clinical, financial, operational and patient

safety criteria to identify the 100 winners.



    The hospital assessment project, which dates back to 1993, was formerly

called the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals program. Thomson Corporation

acquired Solucient, LLC, in 2006. It acquired Reuters earlier this year to

form Thomson Reuters.



    "We are continuously working to achieve the best quality measures and

rapidly adopting new technologies for the benefit of our patients," said

Paul Summerside, M.D., chairman of the board of directors for Aurora

BayCare Medical Center. "We are honored to receive this recognition."



    "I'm thrilled to see our caregivers' dedication to patients and hard

work to ensure we're meeting patient and family expectations recognized

like this," said Rick Kellar, Aurora West Allis Medical Center's chief

administrative officer. "Our goal is to provide top-flight care to the

people of our community."



    "Being recognized for this achievement further solidifies our

dedication to improving the care that we provide to the community," said

Steve Long, chief administrative officer of Aurora Medical Center in Two

Rivers.



    Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and

100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Reuters, said: "This study identifies

superior leadership, based on the success of hospital executive teams'

long-term strategies for strengthening performance. These are true 'Good to

Great' leadership teams that have focused on improving quality, efficiency,

use of evidence-based medicine, and financial stability in order to better

serve their patients and communities."



    The study rated hospitals on eight factors -- patient mortality,

medical complications, patient safety, length of stay, expenses,

profitability, cash-to-debt ratio, and use of evidence-based medicine.

Researchers evaluated 2,867 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals

in five categories: major teaching hospitals, other teaching hospitals,

large community hospitals, medium-sized community hospitals and small

community hospitals.



    The study analyzed publicly available Medicare cost reports, Medicare

Provider Analysis and Review data, and the Centers for Medicare and

Medicaid Services' Hospital Compare data set.



    In March, Aurora West Allis Medical Center and Aurora Sheboygan

Memorial Medical Center were on Thomson's list of the nation's 100 top

hospitals in clinical outcomes, patient safety, financial performance and

efficiency. Aurora West Allis was one of only 16 sites to be on both the

100 Top Hospitals and Performance Improvement Leaders lists.



    For more information on the lists, go to http://www.thomsonreuters.com.



    Aurora Health Care is a not-for-profit Wisconsin health care provider

and a national leader in efforts to improve the quality of health care.

Aurora offers care at sites in more than 90 communities throughout eastern

Wisconsin.