The Joint Commission released its fifth annual report that summarizes the performance of thousands of accredited hospitals for 2011, giving special recognition to 620 hospitals that achieved outstanding performance and were part of its "Top Performers" program, now in its second year.

Over 50 percent more hospitals were recognized in the program than last year, according to the report.

"The increased number of hospitals achieving top performer status is all the more remarkable because we raised the bar this year by adding 20 new accountability measures to the program," said Dr. Mark Chassin, president of the Joint Commission, during a conference call with reporters.

Hospitals eligible for the program were evaluated based on how they scored in 45 performance measures, or accountability measures, that they chose to report within eight categories: heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, children's asthma care, venous thromboembolism, stroke, and inpatient psychiatric service. Hospitals with inpatient psychiatric units were included in the program for the first time this year, and Chassin said that soon a perinatal care measure will be added to the program.

To achieve top performance, each hospital had to score 95 percent or above on a single, composite score, which means it had to show an evidence-based practice, such as giving aspirin to a heart attack patient upon arrival 95 times out of 100.

Chassin said the report is not a ranking of hospitals or an attempt to give a single grade to a hospital to reflect the overall quality of care, like some reports do.

"In our view, those attempts are misguided. Hospitals may do some things well and other things not well; performance in one area does not necessarily correlate with performance in another," he said.

Better performance will help hospitals meet value-based purchasing requirements, which went into effect this year, under federal health care reform. Many of the measures in the Joint Commission reporting core measure performance data are similar to those set forth in the federal program.

"Hospitals want to be on the list because it provides strong evidence that they are achieving a high level of excellence on some of the very best measures of quality that exist -- that's what hospitals want and what the public wants," Chassin said.

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