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Albany Medical Center Named to National 'Performance Improvement Leaders'

ALBANY, N.Y., August 6, 2007 - The Albany Medical Center was one of just 15 major teaching hospitals in the country - and the only one in upstate New York -  to be named 'A Performance Improvement Leader' today (Aug. 6) by Thomson Healthcare (formerly Solucient).

The complete list of U.S. hospitals that Thomson says "are improving the fastest and most consistently in clinical quality and efficiency and are employing strategies that grow their outpatient services" appears in this week's issue of Modern Healthcare magazine.

"This designation recognizes the significant advances in clinical quality and efficiency that our staff has achieved by continuing to put the patient at the center of everything we do," stated James J. Barba, president and chief executive officer of the Albany Medical Center. "This distinction also reflects the significant growth that our institution has experienced in recent years. I commend the entire senior management team and staff for advancing the care of our patients in such an outstanding manner. And I thank our Board of Directors for consistently supporting management in these efforts."

According to Thomson, the Performance Improvement Leaders study measures reflect improvement of clinical outcomes, patient safety, efficiency, financial stability and growth.

In releasing the study results today, Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Healthcare, stated, "These Performance Improvement Leaders are bellwethers for the progress the entire hospital industry has pursued since the Institute of Medicine published its landmark study, "Crossing the Quality Chasm" in 2001. They are an important group to watch because they demonstrate a variety of ways that real improvement can be achieved in many key areas across the hospital organization simultaneously over an extended timeframe.

"This recognition is a tribute to the winning hospitals' management teams, which are providing enormous value to their communities."

Specifically, the study rated hospitals on eight factors that reflect clinical outcomes and efficiency, financial strength and market growth - patient mortality, medical complications, patient safety, length of stay, expenses, profitability, cash-to-debt ratio, and growth in patient volume. Researchers evaluated 2,897 short-term, acute care, non-federal hospitals.

From 2001 to 2005, the Top 100 Hospitals Performance Improvement Leaders:

•         Had fewer patient deaths, complications and adverse safety events than are to be
           expected.
•         Increased expenses only 6 percent, on average, compared with an 18 percent
           increase among their peer hospitals.
•         Rose from unprofitability to sound financial margins.
  
•         Trimmed their average length of stay by nearly a day, despite treating a sicker
           population of patients.

The Thomson Performance Improvement Leaders study analyzed publicly available Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review data, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services outpatient data.

A total of 100 hospitals were named to the list, which in addition to the major teaching hospitals category, also included the following categories: Teaching Hospitals, Large Community Hospitals, Medium Community Hospitals and Small Community Hospitals. Albany Medical Center was the only hospital in the Capital Region to make the list