Suburban hospitals named as “top performers”

Six suburban hospitals are among 18 in Illinois named Wednesday as top performers on key quality measures by The Joint Commission, an Oakbrook Terrace-based group that is the leading accreditor of health care organizations in America.

The quality measures are based on treatment for heart attacks, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care and kids' asthma.

The suburban hospitals receiving the accreditation were: Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington; Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge; Delnor Community Hospital in Geneva; Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville; Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove; and the North Chicago VA Medical Center.

Only 405 U.S. hospitals earned the distinction. A full list can be seen at www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.

The Joint Commission says the top performers achieved high marks on consistently using evidence-based treatments. Their annual report also showed continued improvements in using recommended treatment in 2010.

For example, on average, hospitals gave recommended pneumonia treatment 95 percent of the time last year, versus almost 93 percent in 2009. That includes emergency room blood cultures and certain vaccinations.

Improvement also was seen in heart attack care. On average, hospitals gave appropriate treatment 98.4 percent of the time, up slightly from 2009 and from almost 90 percent in 2002. That measure included aspirin on arrival and at hospital discharge, and beta blockers at discharge.

But the commission says improvement is needed on some measures. That includes giving timely clot-busting drug treatment to heart attack patients; overall hospitals did that about 60 percent of the time. And on average, hospitals gave antibiotics to intensive care unit pneumonia patients 77 percent of the time. Those scores are higher than in 2009, but the commission says they are still too low.