Joint Commission names Top Performer hospitals, puts program on hiatus

The Joint Commission, which this week named more than 1,000 hospitals top performers for quality in its annual report, said it will put the program on hiatus until 2017 while it adjusts its methodology to account for shifting focus on new quality measures.

Overall, the accrediting agency said hospital quality is improving across accredited facilities.

"Due to the evolving national performance measure environment – particularly within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services – we have decided to place the current Top Performer program in hiatus for a year to be reevaluated," wrote Joint Commission CEO Mark Chassin in the report. "While we won't be recognizing Top Performer hospitals in the fall of 2016, I am confident that hospitals will continue to improve, and that in 2017, we will return with a refreshed program that will better fit the evolving national measure environment while supporting Top Performers and hospitals on track to achieving this recognition."

[Also: 1-star hospital number falls in latest CMS rankings, 5-stars slide]

According to the Joint Commission, the recent results were based on data from 2014 and took into account quality metrics for 49 areas including stroke treatment, heart failure, inpatient psychology and surgical care among others. Seven measures were new this year, including new measures for tobacco treatment and substance abuse. However, only one hospital earned a Top Performer status for tobacco treatment and none were honored for substance abuse treatment.

In total, one-third of the accredited hospitals earned Top Performer status.

Here is the complete searchable list, which includes the name of the hospitals, the city, state and the categories where they there were recognized. An "X" in a category shows what measures hospitals were honored for.