Performance of the '100 top hospitals': what does the report card report?

We examine whether Medicare patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) admitted to one of HCIA-Mercer's "100 top hospitals" received better care or had better outcomes than patients treated in other hospitals. Among four hospital peer groups, the top 100 hospitals had similar thirty-day mortality and use of aspirin, beta-blockers, and reperfusion compared with their peers, but lower lengths-of-stay and in-hospital costs, with similar or lower readmission rates. Our findings suggest that the 100 Top Hospitals study may be better suited for identifying hospitals with higher performance on financial and operating measures than superior clinical performance in treating elderly AMI patients. However, there was no evidence that quality was sacrificed for increased financial efficiency among the top 100 hospitals.