Riverside Medical One of the Nation’s 100 Top Hospitals - 4th Straight Year

KANKAKEE, IL--(Marketwire - April 27, 2011) -

For the fourth straight year, Riverside Medical Center, a Hospital in Illinois, has been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals by Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care.

“We are very proud to be named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals four years in a row,” said Phil Kambic, Riverside Medical Center president and CEO. “This recognition not only reflects a culture that is committed to remarkable patient care, it is also largely speaks about the dedication of the men and women who provide that care. We’re one of the Nation’s best because we have some of the Nation’s best employees.”

The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals® study evaluates performance in 10 areas: mortality; medical complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; post-discharge mortality; and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, and pneumonia. The study has been conducted annually since 1993.

Riverside received 100 Top Hospital designations in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Thomson Reuters researchers evaluated 2,914 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals. They used public information -- Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website.

If all Medicare inpatients received the same level of care as those treated in the award-winning facilities:

• Nearly 116,000 additional patients would survive each year.
• More than 197,000 patient complications would be avoided annually.
• Expense per adjusted discharge would drop by $462.
• The average patient stay would decrease by half a day.

If the same standards were applied to all inpatients, the impact would be even greater.

Riverside Medical Center was also recently named as a Magnet Credentialed Organization. Being a Magnet hospital is one of the highest honors a hospital can earn with respect to the standard of nursing care provided. With this credential, Riverside joins the Magnet community -- a select group of 378 healthcare organizations out of nearly 6,000 U.S. healthcare organizations.