Scripps named one of five top mid-size health systems nationwide in IBM

Scripps Health is among 15 medical providers nationwide named “top health systems” in a nationwide study that examines performance in a wide range of categories from infection control to patient death.

Published by Merative, formerly Truven Health Analytics, the annual ranking lists Scripps among five medium-sized, multi-hospital operators designated as the top performers in the United States.

Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, chief medical officer of acute care operations at Scripps, said that making the list validates the work of those who worked the front lines through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Not that we do things for awards, but it will go a long way with our front-line staff who have been working so hard,” Sharieff said.

Analysts used publicly available data on care provided to the nation’s 15 million Medicare recipients in 2019 and 2020 to judge the performance of 349 health systems operating in the United States, excluding specialty hospitals, those owned by the federal government and those with incomplete or anomalous performance data.

Overall, the top-15 were said to have had lower death and readmission rates than peers and to have sent patients home sooner with fewer infections.

If all hospitals in the nation were to produce similar results, the study estimates that an additional 61,000 lives could be saved in hospitals with 5 percent fewer infections and, on average, discharge home a half-day sooner with 4 percent lower medical expenses.

Scripps has made the list six times during the 14-year span that the study has been published.

Other organizations that made the list in the medium category are Cone Health in Greensboro, N.C., Edward-Elmhurst Health in Naperville, Ill., PIH Health in Whittier and St. Luke’s Health System in Boise, Idaho.

Large systems making the list include Allina Health in Minnesota, Baylor Scott and White Health in Dallas, Mayo Clinic, based in Rochester, Minn., Penn Medicine in Philadelphia and Rush Health in Chicago.