DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – Delray Medial Center has been named one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals® by Solucient, leading source of healthcare business intelligence.  The honor continues the hospital’s tradition of providing nationally-recognized award-winning care.

The award from Solucient recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in quality of care, operational efficiency, financial performance and adaptation to the environment.  The 11th edition of Solucient’s 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success study appears in a special supplement to the May 24 edition of Modern Healthcare magazine.

“Inclusion on the Solucient list is based on superior performance in overall care as well as cardiac programs in comparing more than 6,000 acute and specialty care hospitals nationwide,” said Delray Medical Center CEO Mitch Feldman.  “We are extremely proud to have been ranked among the nation’s elite hospitals once again this year.”

In 2003, Delray Medical Center was the only hospital in Florida ranked among the “Best” in the nation for cardiac care and surgery by U.S. News & World Report – in addition to being designated a Top 100 Hospital by Solucient for services, including cardiac care.

The 11th edition of the Solucient 100 Top Hospitals: National Benchmarks for Success study analyzed acute care hospitals nationwide using detailed empirical performance data from 2002, including publicly available MedPAR data and Medicare cost reports.  The study scored facilities according to key measures: risk-adjusted mortality and risk adjusted complications, average length of stay, expenses, profitability, growth in percent of community served, cash flow to total debt ratio, tangible assets per adjusted discharge, and coding specificity.

“The management teams at the 100 Top Hospitals have led their facilities to the highest performance levels in the nation by adopting new approaches that facilitate optimum care for patients, based on their real needs,” noted Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president of Solucient’s Center for Healthcare Improvement and the 100 Top Hospitals program.

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

Delray Medical Center continues as one of South Florida’s most widely honored facilities.  U.S. News & World Report honored Delray Medical Center as the highest rated heart and heart surgery hospital in South Florida and one of the top 50 hospitals in the country in the category of Heart and Heart Surgery in 2003.  It was the only South Florida hospital so honored and one of only three Florida heart hospitals to be recognized in the report.

Delray Medical Center is rated in the top five percent in the nation for overall cardiac services, including cardiac surgery, interventional procedures such as angioplasty, and treatment of heart attack or heart failure, according to the latest information from HealthGrades, a national healthcare ratings firm.  Delray Medical Center has received HealthGrades’ five-star rating in cardiac services for three consecutive years and the agency also has rated the hospital among the best in the nation for knee replacement surgery. 

Delray Medical Center, part of Tenet South Florida, is a 372-bed acute care hospital located at 5352 Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach, Fla.  The community-based hospital, nationally recognized for award-winning health care, has been serving the medical and health care needs of south central Palm Beach County for more than 20 years.  Delray Medical Center, a state-designated Level II Trauma Center for adults and children, offers a broad range of specialized services, ranging from acute care to rehabilitation to psychiatric services to outpatient care.  The hospital is fully accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency.  To learn more about Delray Medical Center, visit www.delraymedicalctr.com.  For a free physician referral call 1-866-358-4DOC (4362).

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