Ocala Health System highlights Central Florida’s presence on 2014 100 Top Hospitals list
In Truven Health Analytic’s 2014 list of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals, the South and Midwest represented the strongest growth in award winners.
Two dozen list-toppers of the 21stannual study released in March are located in the Medical News market areas, with Illinois accounting for 9 hospitals, primarily centered on Chicago; Florida with six; and the balance spread among North Carolina (3), Georgia and Tennessee (2 each), and Louisiana, Missouri and South Carolina (1 each). Half the states had zero hospitals on the list, including Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi.
Of those, Kentucky and Mississippi fell in the worst of five quintiles of state-level rankings, along with Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Hawaii.
Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Missouri were ranked in the second worst quintile. Georgia and Tennessee landed in the middle quintile, while Florida and the Carolinas were ranked in the second best quintile.
Best quintile states include Delaware, Indiana, Minnesota, Montana, Texas and Wisconsin.
The Scorecard
The 100 Top Hospitals balanced scorecard measures hospital performance across 10 areas – mortality, inpatient complications, patient safety, and average patient stay, expenses, profitability, and patient satisfaction, adherence to clinical standards of care, and post-discharge mortality and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia. The study has been conducted annually since 1993.
“Employers and payers are increasingly seeking network hospitals that consistently provide demonstrated value — hospitals that deliver higher quality, higher satisfaction and lower cost. The 100 Top Hospitals have been objectively proven to provide high value, and the majority of them have demonstrated year-over-year increased value, as well,” said Jean Chenoweth, Truven Health Analytics senior vice president, 100 Top Hospitals Programs. “The results show 100 Top Hospitals to be strong, well-managed hospitals with consistently high performance. This year, 59 percent of the 2014 100 Top Hospitals were winners last year. In 2013, 51 percent were repeat winners; in 2012, 42 percent were repeat winners.”
Florida Truven Winners, with number of years making the list in parentheses:
Brandon Regional Hospital in Brandon (6)
Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center in Panama City (5)
Ocala Regional Medical Center in Ocala and West Marion Community Hospital in West Marion County (4)
Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines (4)
Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast in Miramar Beach (4)
Memorial Hospital Miramar in Miramar (2)
Convergence Challenges
The economics of healthcare delivery continue to evolve radically as hospitals face the challenges of the convergence of risk and care management, said Mike Boswood, CEO of Truven Health.
“In the face of such pervasive changes, our objective and independent measurement shows that these winning hospitals have found ways to achieve excellent patient outcomes while maintaining financial performance,” he said.
Boswood pointed out the hospitals making the list use evidence-based management, driven by objective data and analytics, to help prevent the acceptance of performance patterns that, while traditional, have proven to be unnecessary or detrimental to progress.
“They evaluate all resources to drive new practice patterns in their category,” he said, “and set targets for performance improvement initiatives.”
Truven Health is not averse to rescinding recognition when necessary. Earlier this year, the company removed Desert Valley Hospital, a facility owned by the 20-hospital for-profit Prime Health Services, for 2012 and 2013.
To conduct the 100 Top Hospitals study, Truven Health researchers evaluated 2,803 short-term, acute-care, nonfederal hospitals, using public information — Medicare cost reports, Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) data, and core measures and patient satisfaction data from CMS Hospital Compare website.
Hospitals do not apply for a spot on the list; winners don’t pay to market the honor.
Collectively, the nation’s best hospitals have a lower mortality index considering patient severity, have fewer patient complications, avoid adverse patient safety events, follow accepted care protocols, have lower 30-day readmission and mortality rates, keep expenses low, send patients home sooner, and score better on patient satisfaction surveys.
“In fact, study projections indicate that if the new national benchmarks of high performance were achieved by all hospitals in the U.S., nearly 165,000 additional lives could be saved; more than 90,000 additional patients could be complication-free; $5.4 billion could be saved; and the typical patient could be released from the hospital a half day sooner,” said Boswood, noting that the analysis is based only on Medicare patients. “If the same standards were applied to all inpatients, the impact would be even greater.”
2014 Top 100 Hospitals Third Consecutive Appearance for Health System
OCALA—Ocala Health System employees celebrated the hospitals’ fourth appearance – and third consecutive year – on Truven’s annual list of the nation’s Top 100 Hospitals.
Ocala Regional Medical Center, a 200-bed facility located in Ocala, and West Marion Community Hospital, a 70-bed hospital located in West Marion County, are part of the Hospital Corporation of America’s (NYSE: HCA) North Florida Division.
“While hospitals are regularly evaluated against a broad range of performance standards, only 100 make this prestigious list—less than 2 percent of all the hospitals in the entire country,” said Randy McVay, CEO of Ocala Health. “This distinction is a clear testament to the hard work and dedication of our physicians, employees, and volunteers to delivering the highest quality care to our patients and their families.”
Three HCA properties comprise half the Florida list. Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center in Panama City is featured in the company’s North Florida portfolio, and Brandon Regional Hospital in Brandon represents HCA’s West Florida division.
Ocala Health has several capital improvement projects in varying stages of completion. Earlier this year, Ocala Regional Medical Center hosted its facility rededication of a $9.2 million project that included a new façade, reconfiguration of the Emergency Services entrance, and the creation of a two-level parking garage.
“For the last several years as the number of patients we serve has increased, accessibility to our campus became more difficult – for patients, their family members, visitors, physicians, and for our Emergency Medical Services teams,” said McVay. “We needed to improve access. The final result was worth the effort.”
Expansion projects at both Ocala Regional and West Marion Community Hospital facilities total $45 million.
On the Ocala Regional campus, plans involve building 56,000 square feet of new space, and consolidating all current critical care beds into the new square footage. When completed, 34 intensive care unit beds will be added, representing a net increase of 14 licensed beds at the Ocala hospital. In addition, the post-anesthesia care unit and pre-op area, along with pre- and post-cath lab areas, will undergo complete renovation and upgrade.
Expansion at the West Marion facility includes the addition of a cardiac cath/special procedures lab, a dozen medical/surgical beds on the east wing of the second floor, and another dozen medical/surgical beds on the east wing of the third floor, for a net increase of 24 licensed beds. Also, the existing lab will expand approximately 800 square feet, doubling its current size.
“These plans are extensive; the financial investment being made by HCA is significant,” said McVay. “These projects reflect the confidence HCA has in the work we do each day, in the way we deliver quality patient care to our community, and our ability to continue doing so.”
