Gundersen Lutheran named among top five percent of hospitals in the country

Independent healthcare ratings organization HealthGrades announced today that Gundersen Lutheran is the recipient of the 2012 HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence™ award based on clinical quality performance. The ranking places Gundersen Lutheran among the nation's top five percent of hospitals for the fifth consecutive year.

HealthGrades evaluates hospitals solely on clinical outcomes: risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complications. HealthGrades analysis is based on approximately 40 million Medicare discharges from 2008 through 2010.
According to the study, patients admitted to a hospital receiving this award are, on average, nearly 30 percent less likely to die and almost 2 percent less likely to suffer from an in-hospital complication. In fact, HealthGrades says if all hospitals performed at this level, 165,704 Medicare lives could potentially have been saved and 6,800 Medicare in-hospital complications could potentially have been avoided.

Gundersen Lutheran also received multiple HealthGrades 2012 Excellence Awards™ including those for Cardiac Care, Cardiac Surgery, Coronary Intervention, Orthopaedic Surgery, Joint Replacement, Neurosciences, Stroke Care, Pulmonary Care, General Surgery, Gastroenterology (GI) Care and Critical Care. Of those, HealthGrades designated Gundersen Lutheran one of America's 100 Best for Specialty Care 2012 in Cardiac Care, Cardiac Surgery, Coronary Intervention, Critical Care, Gastrointestinal Care, General Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery and Joint Replacement. In addition, the health system received 5-star ratings, HealthGrades' highest rating, in more than two dozen categories.