Methodology for the Fortune/PINC AI 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals 2023

To determine the hospitals included on the Fortune/PINC AI 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals list, researchers evaluated over 937 short-term, acute care, nonfederal U.S. hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients. All research was based on the following public data sets: Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MEDPAR) data, and measures data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website.

The PINC AI 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals study is based on quantitative research that uses a balanced scorecard approach, based on publicly available data, to identify the top cardiovascular hospitals in the US. It includes patients requiring medical management, as well as those who receive invasive or surgical procedures. Because multiple measures are used, a hospital must provide all forms of cardiovascular care, including open heart surgery, to be included in the study. Each patient group is mutually exclusive, by design.

•AMI patients – restricted to nonsurgical patients 
•HF patients – restricted to nonsurgical patients
•CABG patients – includes all ICD- 10-CM procedure codes, principal or secondary in MS-DRGs 231 – 236
•PCI patients – excludes patients with open chest coronary artery angioplasty

For more information, detailed methodologies, and patient group definitions go to www.100tophospitals.com.  Hospitals do not apply for awards, and winners do not pay to market this honor.

Final rank
Final rank is determined based on performance for all individual measures. Hospitals are ranked within their class definition group. Rankings (scores) within measure domain are relative to the winner class universe only. Lower numbers indicate the best scores.

Cardiovascular Hospital Measures
23 measures distributed across four patient populations:

  • Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) 
  • Heart Failure (HF)
  • Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG)
  • Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI)

Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) Rank
There are six AMI performance measures in the scorecard. Measures include (1) risk-adjusted inpatient (IP) mortality, (2) 30-day mortality, (3) 30-day readmissions, (4) Average length of stay, (5) Average cost per case and (6) 30-day episode of care payment.

Heart Failure (HF)
There are six HF performance measures in the scorecard. Measures include (1) risk-adjusted inpatient (IP) mortality, (2) 30-day mortality, (3) 30-day readmissions, (4) Average length of stay, (5) Average cost per case and (6) 30-day episode of care payment.

Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG)
There are six CABG performance measures in the scorecard. Measures include (1) risk-adjusted inpatient (IP) mortality, (2) risk-adjusted complications, (3) 30-day mortality, (4) 30-day readmissions, (5) Average length of stay, (6) Average cost per case.

Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) 
There are four PCI performance measures in the scorecard. Measures include (1) risk-adjusted inpatient (IP) mortality, (2) risk-adjusted complications, (3) Average length of stay, (4) Average cost per case.

Patient Experience
Overall HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey) score is a new measure that was incorporated this year.  This measure is not included in the ranking of the individual patient groups but is included in the final ranking of the hospital.

Stars key:

  • 5 stars (★★★★★) = Hospital performing at top quintile (>80-100%) within their peer group
  • 4 stars (★★★★) = Hospital performing within second quintile (>60-80%) within their peer group
  • 3 stars (★★★) = Hospital performing within third quintile (>40-60%) within their peer group
  • 2 stars (★★) = Hospital performing within fourth quintile (>20-40%) within their peer group
  • 1 star (★) = Hospital performing in the bottom quintile (0-20%) within their peer group

Class definition
Each hospital is defined within a class based on their bed size and teaching status.

Teaching hospitals with cardiovascular residency programs: 281
Teaching hospitals without cardiovascular residency programs: 335
Community hospitals: 321

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