Value of hospital care measured in national study

The value of hospital care in the Fort Smith region has improved, but the gains won’t be made public until this summer, according to Data Advantage.

Data Advantage, a company that provides hospitals, clinics and other health care companies independent information about costs and care, notes that the value of care offered to U.S. hospital patients can vary by as much as 40 percent. The company’s recent study examined quality, affordability and efficiency, and patient satisfaction at more than 3,000 hospitals.

REGIONAL HOSPITAL VALUE
Hospitals in the Fort Smith area are part of a region comprised of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The median value score for the region was 46.2, according to Morgan Lynch, a spokeswoman with Data Advantage.

Of the 43 hospitals examined in Arkansas, the score values ranged between 23 and 70, with an Arkansas median value score of 50.2, Lynch said.

Details of the report are not being made public until this summer, but Lynch said Fort Smith area hospitals were in the “40s to 50s” range.

“The Fort Smith hospitals hovered around the median for the state. There was nothing in that 20 range,” Lynch said. (Lynch said Fort Smith area hospitals interested in their information should contact Data Advantage.)

If Lynch is correct about 2009 scores for the Fort Smith region, the numbers will reflect an improvement compared to the value of hospital scores received in 2008. In the 2008 report, the Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.-area ranked first on the top 100 list with a 70.3 score. Nearby markets on the top 100 list included Tulsa (62.2), Little Rock-North Little Rock (51.8), and Memphis-West Memphis (48.6).

The top 100 list ended at 39.9, meaning the Fort Smith region scored below 39 in 2008.

(The City Wire has sought input for this report from officials with Sparks Regional Medical Center and St. Edward Mercy. Their comments will be included when received.)

The top five hospitals in the 2008 list were:
1. Fairview Northland Medical Center, Princeton, Minn., 84.10
2. Winchester Hospital, Winchester, Mass. 81.6
3. St. Luke’s Hospital, Chesterfield, Mo. 80.5
4. Community Health Partners, Lorain, Ohio, 79.8
4. Newton Medical Center, Covington, Ga., 79.8

2009 HOSPITAL CARE VALUE REPORT
The federal government is the nation’s largest single purchaser of healthcare services through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Under its Value-Based Purchasing initiative, CMS proposes to reimburse hospitals based on performance against established benchmarks, according to the statement from Data Advantage.

Each hospital is scored nationally on a 100-point scale. The three elements of quality, affordability and efficiency, and patient satisfaction are combined to create an aggregate National Value Score for each hospital, according to Data Advantage.

“Value is the watchword in today’s economy, and healthcare cannot be the exception,” said Data Advantage CEO Hal Andrews. “The Hospital Value Index enables a broader range of healthcare stakeholders to compare the value of hospitals in a more comprehensive way. … Measuring value in healthcare is more complex than measuring solely quality or cost and represents a significant challenge for every stakeholder who wants to improve healthcare.”

Basic finding from the Data Advantage 2009 report include:
Hospitals in the Northeast have hospital value scores some 40 percent better than those in the Southwest.

Hospitals in New York and New Jersey showed the highest Medicare costs per patient but also had the second most favorable Hospital Value Index median score, indicating a possible relationship between higher cost and better patient results.

Hospitals in the Mountain States, including Colorado and Montana, revealed the lowest Medicare costs per patient and scored third lowest on the Hospital Value Index.

The hospitals in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri reported the lowest average Medicare reimbursement per member per year for all healthcare costs, indicating that these hospitals are able to offer relatively high value at a relatively low cost.

The median Hospital Value Index score declined more than 8.5 percent since June 2008.

Quality scores overall showed a significant decline, partially due to the inclusion of post-discharge mortality data for heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia, which became publicly available in December 2008.

Patient safety, patient satisfaction, and affordability and efficiency scores showed improvement across virtually all hospitals.

“We found strong positive correlations between the June 2008 and March 2009 studies, with many lesser-known hospitals delivering better value than some of their highly reputed peers,” David Potash, Data Advantage’s chief medical officer, noted in the press release.