London’s leading private hospital company, HCA International, has taken the ground breaking step to become the first in the independent sector to publish outcome data, giving patients the opportunity to see how they perform relative to other hospitals.

The ‘HCA Quality Report’, published this autumn, shows how their hospitals, including The Portland, The Wellington and The Princess Grace, perform in key areas such as cardiac surgery survival, MRSA, surgical site infections, intensive care survival rates and unplanned readmissions. Much of the data confirms that HCA hospitals out-perform, or are on a par with, some of London’s most recognised acute hospitals.

The data is being made publicly available for the first time, in response to increased demand from private medical insurers, advisors and patients to have more information about quality of care. Some of the ‘performance indicators’ in the report can be directly checked against other hospitals, for example, cardiac surgery outcomes, whereas others are shown relative to a ‘predicted score’ based on factors such as patient history and surgical risk.

The report can be viewed on line at www.hcaqualityreport.hcainternational.com

HCA hospitals believe that publishing their data will help position them as a company of choice within the highly competitive private healthcare market. HCA has invested more than £100 million to become the hospital of choice for acute medical procedures in London, and believes this is now being reflected in the successful outcome data.

HCA’s Commercial Director, Raj Vasudevan, said, “Increasingly, hospitals are being required by the Healthcare Commission to provide evidence of standards of care. Until recently this didn’t include independent hospitals’ outcome data, but we have been routinely collecting this data for years as part of our internal quality programmes and are now proud to deliver the results.”

He added, “Patient satisfaction surveys just aren’t enough. Anyone who is paying for private treatment has done so because they want to access ‘the best’. Patients expect this information to be available and we are delighted they will be able to receive it from HCA.”

About HCA

HCA International is a leading private healthcare provider in London. Its six hospitals, and two outpatient centres, are some of the capital’s most respected and well-established private hospitals and hold national awards for achieving gold standard quality in healthcare*.

The HCA hospitals are:

· The Harley Street Clinic

· The Lister Hospital

· London Bridge Hospital

· The Portland Hospital

· The Princess Grace Hospital

· The Wellington Hospital

Each hospital has its own specialities, its own individual character and its own reputation. Each one offers high levels of expertise and a standard of clinical excellence which is unsurpassed in London and the private sector.

HCA hospitals undertake a wide range of private medical treatments in London including many acute procedures such as heart surgery, neurology and cancer care and are amongst some of the most prestigious establishments in the capital.

* Independent Healthcare Awards 2006 hosted by Laing & Buisson