HA540 Unit 4 Discussion
In not less than 200 words discuss:
Using the Medicare Hospital Compare website; research two hospitals. One hospital should display a high level of quality and the other hospital should display a low level of quality.
After thoroughly researching your hospitals on the Medicare Hospital Compare website, discuss how their quality performance differs. What is the first hospital doing that is yielding a high level of quality? What could the second hospital do to increase their level of quality? Finally, how would you increase value to the services provided by both hospitals?
This is an opportunity for you to explore the practical application of quality research in healthcare. I encourage you to respond in first person, share personal experiences, and ask questions to further develop your understanding of quality performance and value in healthcare.
In two different paragraph give your personal opinion to Jansey Hilliard and Lisa Wagner
Jansey Hilliard
Adventist Glenoaks Hospital vs Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital
I chose these hospitals on the Medicare website as they are both in close proximity to my home in IL. Adventist Glenoaks has an overall rating of 2 stars and Good Shepherd has an overall rating of 4 stars (Medicare, n.d). The most common overall hospital ratings are 3 or 4 stars (Medicare, n.d). Adventist Glenoaks Hospital does not preform emergency services and Good Shepherd Hospital does, so emergency services are not considered in my analysis. However, these facilities are both Acute Care Hospitals.
Adventist Glenoaks Hospital Average Scores Compared to Advocate Good Shepherd in relationship to the National Average:
- Survey of Patients’ Experiences = AGH 64%; AGS 73%; National Average 72%
- Timely & Effective Care Categories were significantly lower for Adventist Glenoaks Hospital than Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital and also fell below the national average
- Complications and Deaths related to surgical complications was significantly less for Adventist Glenoaks Hospital when compared to Advocate Good Shepherd and also the in comparison to the national average
- Unplanned Hospital Visits includes rates of readmission, hospital visits following an outpatient surgery and hospital return days and both hospitals had similar data which was similar to the national average
- Psychiatric Unit Services include the number of patients readmitted to any hospital within 30 days of discharge from the inpatient psychiatric facility and Adventist Glenoaks Hospital was higher than Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital and significantly higher when compared to the national average.
- Payment and Value of Care measures (such as death rates or complication rates) allows for a comparison for the value of care between the two hospitals. the combination of death or complication rates and payment results together allows you to assess a hospital’s value of care. Improving value of care reduces health care costs while maintaining high quality of care. Each of these hospitals reported similar numbers and values which were slightly above the national average.
When comparing the hospitals, Adventist Glenoaks Hospital consistently rated below the national average while Good Shepherd consistently rated higher than the national average. Every facility has room to improve and by focusing on specific categories this can be accomplished, however I think where an organization rates in comparison to the national average is another important consideration when looking at areas in need of improvement. Such improvements would enhance the patient experience.
References
Hospital Compare overall hospital rating. (n.d.). Retrieved from
Lisa Wagner
The two hospitals I chose were Mercy Saint Louis and Christian Hospital. Both hospitals are close to where I live. Both hospitals are Acute care facilities. Mercy Saint Louis is larger than Christian. However, both are connected to a much larger organization. Mercy Saint Louis is part of Mercy and Christian is part of Barnes Jewish. Mercy St. Louis is a trauma 1 hospital and Christian is not.
When looking on the Medicare compare website, Christian receives a one-star rating and Mercy St. Louis is five-star. We can see that Mercy is obviously a quality hospital. It is interesting that some of Christian ratings were better than Mercy but just a few. When reviewing the surveys for patients experience both hospitals received about the same percentages. There are a few instances where Mercy St. Louis had a higher percentage. Most patients would recommend hospital Mercy; they received an 80% while Christian received a 65%.
Mercy has a better than average safety record and their mental health services are also a higher percentage on the majority of treatment provided. Good behavioral health is hard to find. In addition, based off the amount of time patients wait or receive services from Mercy they also scored higher. These are some the ratings I looked at the most. When I asked people in Saint Louis what hospital they recommend, Mercy is usually the first one mentioned.
Christian has a low rating because I believe the safety in their hospital is below the national average, as well of a couple of other areas (Medicare.gov, 2020). I rarely hear anything about Christian hospital. The location of the hospital may also contribute to the rating being so low. Also, there is rarely any media that mentions Christian hospital in particular. While Mercy Saint Louis has great media coverage.
Among the services that could be increased for each hospital, Christian definitely can find ways to offer better behavioral health services and find ways to reach the community. Mercy services improvement opportunity would be to offer better services for unplanned visits to the hospital and offer better payment services. The areas mentioned here are subtle differences that may help boost the quality of care provided for each hospital.
Medicare.gov, Hospital Compare. (2020). Compare Hospitals. Retrieved from
