News: IBM Watson names 15 top health systems of 2019

IBM Watson Health published its annual list of the top 15 health systems in the country based on overall performance earlier this week, according to HealthLeaders Media.

The organizations identified in the report achieved better risk-adjusted outcomes and higher patient satisfaction while also keeping their average per-patient costs down.

To formulate the list, researchers evaluated 337 health systems and 2,961 health system member hospitals, reviewing public data sets. These are the 15 systems that topped the list:

Large health systems

• Avera Health – Sioux Falls, South Dakota
• Mayo Foundation – Rochester, Minnesota
• Mercy – Chesterfield, Missouri
• St. Luke's Health System – Boise, Idaho
• UCHealth – Aurora, Colorado

Medium health systems

• Edward-Elmhurst Health – Naperville, Illinois
• HealthPartners – Bloomington, Minnesota
• Mercy Health, Cincinnati – Cincinnati, Ohio
• Parkview Health – Fort Wayne, Indiana
• TriHealth – Cincinnati, Ohio

Small health systems

• Asante – Medford, Oregon
• Aspirus – Wausau, Wisconsin
• PIH Health – Whittier, California
• ProHealth Care – Waukesha, Wisconsin
• Spectrum Health Lakeland – St. Joseph, Michigan

If all Medicare inpatients were to receive the same level of care as those treated at these 15 health systems, more than 60,000 more lives could be saved and healthcare-associated infections would drop 10%, according to extrapolations by IBM Watson Health. The full report is available from IBM Watson Health.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in HealthLeaders Media. To learn more about the IBM Watson report, click here. To read about the Newsweek top hospitals list, click here. To read about the U.S. News & World Report list, click here. To read about the Leapfrog group list, click here. To read about the Healthgrads list, click here.