Utah has two of Fortune Magazine’s Top 50 Heart Hospitals

SALT LAKE CITY — Two Utah hospitals made Fortune Magazine’s top 50 cardiovascular hospitals.

Intermountain McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden was ranked number seven as a top community hospital and Intermountain Health Medical Center in Murray was ranked number three as a top teaching hospital with a cardiovascular residency program.

The list was compiled by Fortune and Pinc AI, which evaluates heart hospitals annually to determine which ones are the best for high-quality, affordable heart care.

Fortune and Pinc AI examined 940 hospitals and assessed their performance based on clinical outcomes (inpatient deaths and complications, as well as readmission and 30-day mortality rates), operational efficiency (average length of cost and stay), and overall patient experience, according to the magazine.

Intermountain Health said this is the fourth year in a row that Intermountain Medical Center has made the magazine’s list and the first year for Intermountain McKay-Dee Hospital.

“This is a terrific honor to have our efforts to provide the highest-quality heart care to our patients be recognized by Fortune Magazine,” said Eric Lindley, MD, medical director of the cardiovascular program at Intermountain McKay-Dee Hospital. “Our goal is to provide the very best heart care to our patients close to home here in Northern Utah. We’re proud to have those efforts recognized nationally. That’s a credit to our entire team.”

“We’re thrilled to once again be recognized as one of the premier heart hospitals in the nation,” said Stephen McKellar, MD, medical director for the cardiovascular program at Intermountain Medical Center. “Our focus is to provide the very best care and treatment options for our patients. The fact that two of our Intermountain hospitals are ranked among the Top 50 hospitals in the nation is a real honor and speaks to our commitment to our patients.”

The Intermountain Health news release said rankings focus on short-term, acute care, nonfederal hospitals that treat a broad spectrum of cardiology patients. Hospitals must provide all levels of cardiovascular care, including open heart surgery, to be included in the study.

Fortune Magazine said this year’s top-rated hospitals performed better than their peers on all 23 measures. For example, for patients undergoing a coronary artery bypass graft, or a CABG—a procedure in which a blood vessel is attached to the coronary artery to bypass a blockage—at list-making hospitals, inpatient mortality was 50% lower and complications 32% fewer; patients at top hospitals also experienced a shorter stay for a CABG by a margin of a day and had a lower-cost procedure ($40,115, compared to $50,061) than those at peer institutions.

In addition, the study’s authors compared hospitals in the 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals to peer hospitals. The top 50 operated at a lower cost and had better outcomes, recorded significantly higher inpatient survival rates, fewer patients with complications, lower readmission rates, and up to nearly $10,000 less in total costs per patient case.

The study found that if all hospitals operated at the level of Fortune Magazine’s top 50 cardiovascular hospitals, there could be 7,600 fewer deaths due to heart disease, 6,700 fewer bypass and angioplasty patients who suffer complications, and more than $1 billion in inpatient costs could have been saved for the 2024 study year.