The 2003 Index of Hospital Quality

We then created separate analytic universes for each of the 13 IHQ-driven specialties,
using criteria such as specialty-specific technology or facilities. Hospitals had to have a
specified number of discharges across appropriate DRGs. Hospitals with insufficient
volume (discharges) were considered eligible for ranking if they received any reputational
nominations (a non-zero reputational score).
Until 2002, the discharges threshold that determined eligibility included all discharges,
regardless of the medical-surgical mix. 1 In 2002 and again this year, the mix in certain
specialties was specified: For Cancer; Digestive Disorders; Ear, Nose, and Throat;
Gynecology; Neurology and Neurosurgery; Orthopedics, and Urology, the median ratio of
surgical to total discharges for hospitals surpassing the all-discharges threshold was
multiplied by total discharges to obtain a minimum for surgical discharges.
For Heart and Heart Surgery, the minimum number of surgical discharges for eligibility was
set at 500. To obtain a minimum threshold for all discharges, this number was multiplied
by the median ratio of all discharges to surgical discharges for all hospitals surpassing the
surgical discharges threshold. This resulted in a minimum of 1,285 total discharges–500
surgical and 785 medical.
We regularly examine the impact of hospital mergers on our rankings. Ranking hospitals
responding as new corporate entities for the first time in the AHA database are treated as
a single unit and listed in this report. For this release, one merger among hospitals
previously ranked as independent entities appears on the lists. This hospital is now called
St. Luke's-Cornwall Hospital, Newburgh, N.Y., and is made up of two previously separate
hospitals: St. Luke's Hospital, Newburgh, N.Y., and Cornwall Hospital, Cornwall, N.Y.
Figure 1 presents the eligibility criteria and the number of hospitals meeting the criteria
from the 2001 AHA Annual Survey. Figure 2 illustrates the eligibility process.
1 The exception until 2002 was Heart and Heart Surgery, in which surgical discharges alone
determine the threshold for eligibility. Beginning in 2002, both medical and surgical discharges determine
eligibility.
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