Even as work continues around the clock on their major new pavilion project in St. Joseph, Spectrum Health Lakeland has been named one of the 15 Top Health Systems in the entire nation by IBM Watson Health. It’s no fluke, because it’s the second time they’ve been recognized with the 15 Top Health Systems designation.
The study resulting in the designation for the local health system spotlights the best-performing health systems in the U.S., based on a balanced scorecard of publicly available clinical, operational and patient satisfaction metrics and data.
This year’s 15 Top Health Systems study evaluated 337 health systems and 2,961 member hospitals to identify the 15 U.S. health systems with the highest overall achievement on a balanced scorecard. The scorecard is based on the 100 Top Hospitals national balanced scorecard methodologies and focuses on five performance domains:
- Inpatient outcomes
- Process of care
- Extended outcomes
- Efficiency
- Patient experience
This is the second time Spectrum Health Lakeland has been recognized with the 15 Top Health Systems honor. Lakeland Medical Center in St. Joseph and Lakeland Hospital Niles were also named to the 100 Top Hospitals list in both 2014 and earlier this year in 2019.
Dr. Loren Hamel is President of Spectrum Health Lakeland, and he says, “We are proud to be the only health system in Michigan and Northern Indiana recognized in the top 15 by IBM Watson.” Hamel adds, “Over the last decade we have been on a journey to provide quality, compassionate care to our friends and neighbors and this award is a direct reflection of this great work.”
Based on extrapolating the results of this year’s study, if all similarly-situated Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities:
- More than 60,000 additional lives could be saved
- More than 26,000 additional patients could be complication-free
- Healthcare-associated infections would be reduced by 10-percent
- Patients would spend 38 minutes less in hospital emergency rooms per visit
Ekta Punwani is Program Leader for the 100 Top Hospitals program at IBM Watson Health, and notes, “The multi-year trend toward increased healthcare consolidation has shined a spotlight on health system performance, illuminating both the challenges of coordinating care across multiple facilities and the opportunities that can come with scale.” Punwani adds, “The institutions recognized in the IBM Watson Health 15 Top Health Systems study are providing a blueprint for how to improve quality, lower costs and achieve outstanding patient satisfaction on a consistent basis.”
For more information, or to see a complete list of winners, you can click the link below:
http://www.100tophospitals.com
Spectrum Health Lakeland is a non-profit, community-owned health system serving Southwest Michigan and Northern Indiana, offering a full continuum of care and wellness services including three hospitals, an outpatient surgery center, a cancer center, and 41 physician practices. Lakeland is a division of Spectrum Health with 30,000 compassionate professionals, 4,100 medical staff experts, 3,200 committed volunteers and a health plan serving 1 million members. Lakeland was named a 100 Top Hospital by IBM Watson Health for 2019.
Watson Health is a business unit of IBM that is dedicated to the development and implementation of cognitive and data-driven technologies to advance health. Watson Health technologies are tackling a wide range of the world’s biggest health care challenges, including cancer, diabetes, drug discovery and more.
