Reading Hospital today announced that, for the first time, it has been named one of Healthgrades America's 50 Best Hospitals, which places the hospital among the top 1 percent of nearly 4,500 hospitals nationwide, according to Healthgrades. This award recognizes Reading Hospital for its consistent, year-over-year superior clinical performance.
"The team at Reading Hospital strives to provide the highest-quality care to every patient," said P. Sue Perrotty, Tower Health President and CEO. "For the past five years, Reading earned the 'America's 100 Best Hospitals' designation. I am so proud that, even during an ongoing and relentless global pandemic, the teams continued their dedicated efforts and can now proudly state they are among the top one percent of hospitals in the country. This is a prestigious recognition and I commend everyone at the hospital for the important role they play in caring for our patients."
In addition to being named as one of America's 50 Best Hospitals in the U.S. in 2022, Reading Hospital also achieved the 2022 Healthgrades Stroke Care Excellence Award™ and the Healthgrades Pulmonary Care Excellence Award™.
"Being among America's 50 Best Hospitals is the pinnacle achievement from Healthgrades," said Brad Bowman, MD, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Data Science at Healthgrades. "These hospitals are truly leading the nation and setting the standard for care delivery. We commend Reading Hospital for its dedication to patient care and committing themselves to keeping their communities safe."
Also in 2022, Healthgrades recognized Reading with five 5-star ratings (i.e., "better than expected" outcomes) in areas such as total hip replacement surgery, cardiac valve surgery, treatment of stroke, treatment of pneumonia, and treatment of heart failure.
Recipients of this year's Healthgrades' 50 Best Hospitals are being recognized for overall clinical excellence and providing top-quality care across multiple specialty lines and areas. During the 2022 study period (MedPAR Fiscal Years 2018-2020), these hospitals showed superior performance in clinical outcomes for patients in the Medicare population across at least 21 of the most common inpatient conditions and procedures — as measured by objective performance data (risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complications).
Ron Nutting, MD, Reading Hospital's Chief Medical Officer, added, "We are humbled to achieve national recognition for our team's relentless efforts in focusing on our mission to deliver high-quality care to the community. This achievement is a testament to the patient-centered dedication, resilience, and creativity of our multidisciplinary staff of physicians, advanced practice professionals, nurses, therapists, and support staff who truly function as one team driven to provide to best possible care for our community."
As just two examples of recent quality initiatives, Dr. Nutting cites improved transitions of care following discharge from the inpatient hospital environment to the outpatient arena. In addition to maintaining post-discharge follow-up calls for certain high-risk diagnoses, the team initiated a post-discharge transition-of-care clinic for patients without access to primary care. These activities reduce the likelihood of readmission to the hospital and death following a patient discharge. The second initiative is regarding our Sepsis performance team's ongoing efforts to reduce the mortality due to sepsis by appreciably reducing the time from a diagnosis of sepsis to delivery of life-saving antibiotics.
From 2018 through 2020, patients treated in hospitals achieving the Healthgrades America's 50 Best Hospitals award, had, on average, a 21.7 percent lower risk of dying than if they were treated in hospitals that did not receive the award, as measured across 19 rated conditions and procedures where mortality is the outcome.
With tools like hospital ratings and awards, Healthgrades helps consumers make confident healthcare decisions by enabling the evaluation and comparison of hospital performance to find the highest-quality care. Visit Healthgrades.com/quality/americas-best-hospitals for an in-depth look at Reading Hospital's and Tower Health's performance and profile to explore the highest-quality care in Pennsylvania today. Consumers can also visit Healthgrades.com for more information on how Healthgrades measures hospital quality, or access the complete methodology here.
About Reading Hospital
Reading Hospital is the flagship, Magnet Recognized, acute care hospital of Tower Health. Located in West Reading, Pa., Reading Hospital is a 697-bed hospital that is home to many top-tier specialty care centers, including Reading HealthPlex, McGlinn Cancer Institute, Miller Regional Heart Center, Emergency Department, Level I Trauma Center and Beginnings Maternity Center, which houses the region's only Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). With more than 1,000 physicians, specialists, and advanced practice providers across 49 locations, Reading Hospital has been recognized for its quality outcomes and clinical expertise across services lines. It is listed as one of America's 100 Best Hospitals for four consecutive years (and moving up to America's 50 Best Hospitals in 2022) and received a 5-Star Rating from CMS two years in a row. For more information, visit towerhealth.org.
About Healthgrades and its methodology
Healthgrades is committed to delivering the most scientifically accurate and comprehensive information about doctors and hospitals – with data insights not available anywhere else. To assess overall hospital performance, Healthgrades reviewed outcomes across more than 30 of the most common procedures and conditions. Recipients of this award have consistently delivered better-than-expected outcomes for their patients year over year. To learn more about how Healthgrades determines award recipients, and for more information on Healthgrades Quality Solutions, please visit www.healthgrades.com/quality.
Healthgrades is part of RV Health, a Red Ventures business, which has the largest online consumer health and wellness audience across its brand portfolio including Healthline, Medical News Today, Greatist, Psych Central, Bezzy, and Platejoy. Each month, RV Health helps more than 100 million unique visitors live their strongest and healthiest lives. Start your search for the right care at healthgrades.com or learn more about our health system solutions and awards at healthgrades.com/partners.
*Statistics are based on Healthgrades analysis of MedPAR data for years 2018 through 2020 and represent 3-year estimates for Medicare patients only.