Mercy Named Among the Nation’s Top Performance Improvement Leaders by Thomson Healthcare

Nampa, Idaho – Mercy Medical Center announced today that was named one of the nation's top performance improvement leader hospitals by Thomson Healthcare, the leading provider of decision support solutions that help organizations across the healthcare industry improve clinical and business performance.

Mercy was recognized for being one of a hundred hospitals making the greatest progress in improving hospital-wide performance over five consecutive years (2001-2005). The 2006 Thomson 100 Top Hospitals®: Performance Improvement Leaders have set national benchmarks for the rate and consistency of improvement in clinical outcomes, safety, hospital efficiency, financial stability, and growth. Mercy Medical Center and its medical staff have made major strides in increasing the quality and efficiency of services locally.

“Mercy’s top priority is providing the highest quality healthcare for the Nampa community,” said Joe Messmer, President and CEO of Mercy Medical Center.  “We are honored that our dedication and commitment to this goal have been recognized.”

Efforts at Mercy are part of a broader, national movement to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare spurred by the Institute of Medicine’s 2001 publication of "Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century," a book that that described quality issues and proposed six goals for healthcare delivery.  Partly as a result of this landmark study, a number of organizations began developing programs to improve hospital patient safety, including the 100,000 Lives Campaign by The Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the Quality Alliance.

"The leadership of the hospital and all of the people who work there have heard the national call to increase the pace of improvement for patients across the nation. Their efforts to improve performance have resulted in consistent year-over-year improvement that is among the fastest rate in the nation for its type of hospital," said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president, 100 Top Hospitals programs, Center for Healthcare Improvement, Thomson Healthcare. "This means that your local hospital has found the key to continually improving the health services for the people in the community."

The Thomson 100 Top Hospitals: Performance Improvement Leaders study analyzed acute care hospitals nationwide using detailed empirical performance data from years 2001 through 2005, including publicly available Medicare MedPAR data, Medicare cost reports, and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) outpatient data. 
Findings from the fourth edition of the Thomson 100 Top Hospitals®: Performance Improvement Leaders study appear in the August 6, 2007, issue of Modern Healthcare magazine. More information on this study and other 100 Top Hospitals research is available at www.100tophospitals.com.

About Mercy Medical Center
Mercy Medical Center is a 152 bed acute care hospital serving the medical needs of the greater Nampa area. Mercy Medical Center was founded in 1917 by The Sisters of Mercy and is owned and operated by Catholic Health Initiatives, the second largest Catholic health system in the United States. Mercy’s medical services are provided at Mercy Medical Center, Mercy North Health Center, Mercy Home Health and Hospice, and the Mercy Family Birthing Center all in Nampa, Idaho.

About Thomson Healthcare
Thomson Healthcare is the leading provider of decision support solutions that help organizations across the healthcare industry improve clinical and business performance. Thomson Healthcare products and services help clinicians, hospitals, employers, health plans, government agencies, and pharmaceutical companies understand healthcare markets, access medical and drug information, manage costs, and improve the quality of healthcare.