ST. PAUL (August 10, 2009) - HealthEast Care System has been named one of the top 10 U.S. health systems. That's according to a new, unprecedented study by Thomson Reuters and based on the hospital clinical performance and how well the hospitals take care of their patients.

"We're extremely pleased to be recognized as one of the top ten health systems in the country based on our clinical performance," said Craig Svendsen, MD, HealthEast Chief Medical Quality Officer. "These measurements are based on data from 2006/2007 and we know our quality measurements are even better today. This honor is especially rewarding, since it's not something we applied for, but it's based on our day in and day out performances, along with our quality improvement efforts. The real winners here are our patients, who receive quality care and trust us for their health care needs. Congratulations to everyone at HealthEast for all their good work!"

Released exclusively to Modern Healthcare, the study evaluated 252 health systems, with a total of 1,720 hospitals, on measures of clinical performances in five areas including high clinical quality and efficiency, low mortality rates, low medical complications and high patient safety.

HealthEast and the other top ten health care systems had 25% lower mortality, 19% fewer medical complications and 13% fewer patient safety incidents, even though their patients were sicker and their average hospital stays were significantly shorter than hospitals that ranked in the bottom.

"The top 10 include for-profit and not-for-profit health systems, religious and secular organizations, and facilities that differ in size, ownership structure, and geographic distribution of member hospitals," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president for performance improvement and 100 Top Hospitals programs at Thomson Reuters. "This suggests that every type of health system has the potential to drive higher quality - and health systems could become a powerful force for rapid improvement in hospital performance as the industry is restructured."

This latest ranking for HealthEast comes on the heels of being named one of the 2009 top 10 "Best Places to Work" in Minnesota for the fifth consecutive year by the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal and one of the top 100 "Best Places to Work in Healthcare" in 2008 by Modern Healthcare.

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HealthEast is a community-focused health care system that provides innovative technology, compassionate care and a full spectrum of family health services. HealthEast includes Bethesda, St. John's and St. Joseph's Hospitals, Woodwinds Health Campus, outpatient services, home care, clinics, pharmacies and medical transportation services.