BURBANK HOSPITAL IN TOP 100.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center has been named one of the nation's top 100 hospitals in a survey by two independent health care industry firms.

The 455-bed acute care facility was the only one from the San Fernando Valley that made the list, which identifies hospitals that deliver the most cost-efficient and high-quality medical care.

``We were very pleased,'' said Michael J. Madden, chief executive officer of Providence Health System, Los Angeles, the hospital's parent company. ``It reflects the hard work by our physicians, staff, board of directors and volunteers.''

The hospitals were not ranked in order but loosely organized into five categories, ranging from ``small benchmark hospitals'' with fewer than 100 beds to major teaching hospitals with more than 400 beds.

In its first year on the list, Saint Joseph was included in the category ``large community benchmark hospitals with more than 250 beds.'' Statewide, five hospitals were included on the list.

The study was conducted by HCIA, Inc., which provides health care information to hospitals, managed-care organizations and pharmaceutical companies, and William M. Mercer, Inc., one of the nation's leading health care and human resources consulting firms. Results were released last month.

For the past six years, the companies have produced the annual survey ``100 Top Hospitals: Benchmark for Success,'' which uses eight factors to measure the quality of care, efficiency of operations and consistent overall performance of hospitals.

``These are hospitals who set benchmark scores for everyone to shoot for,'' said Jean Chenoweth, senior vice president of HCIA.

She said hospitals on the list have shown that they can survive competition from managed-care companies.

``Over the past six years, the empirical results of the 100 top hospitals study have proved that hospitals can excel as managed-care penetration deepens, financial pressure increases, and the demand for quality intensifies,'' Chenoweth said. ``These hospitals have superior management teams that thrive on adversity and make their organizations function on all cylinders.''

Madden attributed Saint Joseph's ranking to a merger three years ago with Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. The two facilities share business offices and administrative duties such as billing and collecting, which helped boost Saint Joseph's profitability - one of the key measures of the survey.

``We were able to lower our overall cost,'' Madden said. ``There were significant cost savings by sharing administrative costs. We were able to save money for both facilities.''

Study organizers said hospitals around the nation need to adopt the practices of those on the list if they want to prosper in the 21st century.