For the eighth consecutive year, Lankenau Medical Center has been named one of the nation’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals® by Truven Health Analytics in the “Teaching Hospitals with Cardiovascular Residency Programs” category. The winning hospitals were announced in the Nov. 10 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine. Lankenau is one of only two hospitals in Pennsylvania and in the Philadelphia region to be named to the list.

“This award continues to acknowledge our strong cardiovascular care presence in the region,” said Phil Robinson, president, Lankenau Medical Center. “Thanks to our cardiovascular services team’s commitment to superior patient care and outcomes, our program continues to grow on each of our campuses and within our physician practices.”

Home to the most robotically-assisted heart bypass surgeries in the nation, Lankenau is continually recognized for cardiovascular excellence. In fall 2013, Lankenau opened its Heart Pavilion, a specially-designed building that increases patient comfort, convenience and safety, improves operational and environmental efficiencies, and utilizes advanced technology and clinical capabilities. At the same time, Main Line Health formed the Lankenau Heart Institute, the system brand for cardiovascular services. The Lankenau Heart Institute brings together the clinical expertise of all four Main Line Health acute care hospitals and community cardiology practices to ensure that patients receive a level of quality, service and experience that is unprecedented in the region. Through the coordination of services system-wide, the Lankenau Heart Institute delivers preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative cardiovascular services at each of our hospital-based locations.

The study, now in its 16th year, singled out 50 hospitals that achieved superior clinical outcomes in this critical area of hospital care. As is the case with the 100 Top Hospital study published annual by Truven Health, the rigorous processes used to calculate and measure hospital service lines leverage industry leading, risk-adjusted methodologies developed and maintained by Truven Health scientists over many years and are widely-regarded as the leading program for evaluating leadership impact in a hospital, as well as in evaluating quality indicators and efficiencies.

The Truven Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals® study evaluates performance in key performance areas: risk-adjusted mortality, risk-adjusted complications, core measures (a group of measures that assess process of care), percentage of coronary bypass patients with internal mammary artery use, 30-day mortality rates, 30-day readmission rates, severity-adjusted average length of stay, and wage- and severity-adjusted average cost. The study has been conducted annually since 1999. This is Truven Health Analytics researchers analyzed 2012 and 2013 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, 2013 Medicare cost reports, and 2014 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare data.

“The study shows that 39 of the 50 hospitals in the 2015 study, 78 percent of the winners, are facilities within a larger health system," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and the 100 Top Hospitals program at Truven Health Analytics. "This indicates that the overall aptitude of hospitals to improve care deliverables increases when they work as a coordinated team to implement well established, proven and integrated best practices from one facility to the next. Again, as we find in the 100 Top study, this also infers a significant correlation between hospital leadership and their organization’s outcome and quality achievements.”

The study and subsequent analysis of the positive variances these leading cardio service hospitals show indicate an opportunity for a broader national impact for cardiovascular patient, should these results be replicated. In fact, if all cardiovascular providers in the U.S. performed at the level of this year's winners, more than:

• Nearly 9,500 additional lives could be saved
• $1 billion could be saved
• 3,000 additional bypass and angioplasty patients could be complication free

More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at 100tophospitals.com.

Founded in 1985, Main Line Health is a not-for-profit health system serving portions of Philadelphia and its western suburbs. Main Line Health’s commitment—to deliver advanced medicine to treat and cure disease while also playing an important role in prevention and disease management as well as training physicians and other health care providers—reflects our intent to keep our community and ourselves well ahead. A team of more than 10,000 employees and 2,000 physicians care for patients throughout the Main Line Health system.

At Main Line Health’s core are four of the region’s most respected acute care hospitals—Lankenau Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Paoli Hospital and Riddle Hospital—as well as one of the nation’s recognized facilities for rehabilitative medicine, Bryn Mawr Rehabilitation Hospital.

The Main Line Health system also includes Mirmont Treatment Center for drug and alcohol recovery; Main Line Health HomeCare & Hospice, which includes skilled home health care, hospice and home infusion services; Main Line Health Centers, primary and specialty care, lab and radiology, and other outpatient services located in Broomall, Collegeville, Concordville, Exton and Newtown Square; Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, a biomedical research organization; and Main Line HealthCare, one of the region’s largest multispecialty physician networks.

Main Line Health is the recipient of numerous awards for quality care and service, including System Magnet® designation, the nation’s highest distinction for nursing excellence, the Mid-Atlantic Alliance for Performance Excellence (MAAPE) Excellence Award, and recognition as among the nation’s best employers by Forbes magazine. Main Line Health is committed to creating an environment of diversity, respect and inclusion and has proudly embraced the American Hospital Association’s #123forEquity Pledge to Act to eliminate disparities in care. We are dedicated to advancing patient-centered care, education and research to help our community stay healthy.

Lankenau Medical Center, a member of Main Line Health, is recognized as a national leader in advancing new options to diagnose and treat illness, protect against disease and save lives. Located on a 93-acre campus just outside of Philadelphia, Lankenau Medical Center is a 389-bed, not-for-profit teaching hospital that includes one of the nation’s leading cardiovascular centers; the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, one of the few freestanding hospital-associated research centers in the nation; and the Annenberg Conference Center for Medical Education, that trains over 100 new physicians each year through nationally ranked residency and fellowship programs. Lankenau has received both regional and national recognition for its excellence in providing state-of-the-art, quality care. Lankenau Medical Center has been named among the top 10 hospitals in Pennsylvania and top five in the Philadelphia metro area in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals 2016–17, and was ranked as high-performing in four specialties: gastroenterology & GI surgery, geriatrics, orthopedics and pulmonology. Lankenau was also ranked as high performing in all nine of the Common Core specialty areas that the publication analyzes, including: abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, aortic valve surgery, COPD, colon cancer surgery, congestive heart failure, heart bypass surgery, hip replacement, knee replacement and lung cancer surgery. Lankenau has achieved The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for stroke care and breast cancer care and is one of the nation’s Top Performing Hospitals for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care. Lankenau has also been ranked for multiple years as one of the top 50 cardiovascular hospitals in the nation by Truven Health Analytics. Lankenau has also earned the highest distinction for excellence in nursing care, the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet® designation.