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Press Release

GREELEY (Jan. 16, 2012) – Banner Health’s focus on quality patient care has earned the system a ranking among the top five large health systems in the nation according to a Thomson Reuters announcement released Monday.

Banner Health owns or operates four hospitals in Northern Colorado: North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, McKee Medical Center in Loveland, Sterling Regional MedCenter in Sterling and East Morgan Community Hospital in Brush.

The Thomson Reuters’ 15 Top Health Systems divided the health system into three groups based on overall operating expenses. Banner Health was among the large system group with operating expenses of more than $1.5 billion.

As a Top 5 Large Health System, Banner was recognized for having superior survival rates, fewer patient complications, better long-term outcomes, better adherence to accepted care protocols and patient-safety standards, shorter hospital stays and higher patient-satisfaction scores. Another key distinguishing factor was Banner Health’s use of health information technologies to implement electronic medical records at every Banner facility.

According to Thomson Reuters, among the key findings in the study were the following:

• • Lower 30-Day Mortality Rates: 15 Top Health Systems held post-discharge 30 day mortality rates steady, while peer health systems demonstrated a significant increase in post discharge mortality.
• • Better Survival Rates: Winning hospitals had 17 percent fewer deaths than expected considering patient severity, while non-winning hospitals had 4 percent more deaths than expected.
• • Fewer Complications: Patients of the winning health systems had 19 percent fewer complications.
• • Shorter Hospital Stays: Patients treated in the winning system hospitals have a median average length of stay of 4.7 days, nearly half a day shorter than their peers’ median of 5.1 days.
• • Better Patient Safety and Core Measure Adherence: Top health systems had 23 percent fewer adverse patient safety events than expected and had better adherence to core measures of care than their peers.

ABOUT BANNER HEALTH

Headquartered in Phoenix, Banner Health is one of the country’s largest nonprofit health care systems. Located in seven states, Banner Health owns or manages 23 health care facilities as well as physician practices and nationally recognized research centers. To learn more go to www.BannerHealth.com. ^[2]